A REASONABLE FAITH. 



A EEASONABLE FAITH 



PLAIN SERMONS ON FAMILIAR 
CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES 



ARTHUR CROSBY 



PASTOR OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF SAN RAFAEL, 
CALIFORNIA. 




SAN RAFAEL, CAL. 
MARIN JOURNAL PRINTING HOUSE 

1889 






Copyright, 188S, 
Bu ARTHUR CROSBY. 



The Library 
OF Congress 



WASHINGTON 



PREFACE. 



In California, skepticism among 
Tespectable people is much, more 
outspoken than in the Eastern States. 

Gr'ood men, whose families are in 
the church, excellent citizens and 
neighbors, do not hesitate to express 
with utmost candor their unbelief 
in revealed religion. There is v-ery 
little conventional, or merely formal 
Christianity here, for there is almost 
no temptation for a man to conceal 
his real sentiments if he be an unbe- 
liever. 

It is just about as respectable to 
play lawn tennis, or to go duck- 
shooting of a Sunday morning, as to 
go to church. This practical irre- 
ligion is generally either the efficient 
cause or the immediate result of the 
prevailing skepticism; so that, as a 
rule, the line is sharply drawn 
between believers and unbelievers. 



viii PREFACE. 

The frankness of those who deny 
the truth of Christianity, although 
rather startling at first to one accus- 
tomed to the greater reserve of 
Eastern unbelief, is not without its 
advantages both to the unbeliever 
himself and to the preacher of. the 
gospeL The unbeliever forms the 
habit of consistency — of acting as 
he thinks; so that if he can be 
brought to think rightly, he is much 
more likely at once to rectify his 
conduct. The change in his views 
will be marked by a definite change 
in his life. 

The preacher has this advantage, 
that he knows what he has to deal 
with, and can be outspoken and 
aggressive. The strongholds he must 
assail are not masked batteries. The 
guns of the enemy are in full sight. 
He will, moreover, very soon dis- 
cover the fact that the prevalent 
unbelief is, for the most part, neither 
very profound nor very obdurate, and 
to meet it and counteract its influ- 



PREFACE. ix 

ence, he will find a plain restatement 
of familiar evidences the most effec- 
tive method. 

Unfortunately, however, the peo- 
ple whom he most desires to reach 
are seldom in church and, in all 
probability, will not hear the ser- 
mons which he has prepared for their 
especial benefit. 

It is in the hope of meeting, in 
some measure, this difficulty in my 
own parish that I risk the publica- 
tion of these sermons. Perhaps there 
are some who. will read them, who 
would not come to church and hear 
them preached. I also venture to 
hope that they may in some slight 
degree supply a need in other places. 

This hope is not based upon any 
originality in the arguments; cer- 
lainly not upon any brilliancy of 
treatment. The arguments are old, 
and, to those who have given atten- 
tion to such matters, familiar. The 
method of treatment and the style 
of composition are commonplace. 



X PREFACE, 

Perhaps therefore the usefuhiess of 
the book will be greater. 

What most people need for the 
confirmation of their faith is not 
something new, not something bril- 
liant. They simply need to have set 
before them in nnpretentions lan- 
guage the old, well-established argu- 
ments for the truth of the Bible and 
for the Divinity of Christ. And to 
do this has been my aim in these 
plain sermons. 

It will be seen at once that their 
purpose is not to answer the more 
profound metaphysical and scientific 
objections to Christianity. These are 
fully answered in the many learned 
treatises of eminent theologians and 
philosophers. But for the most part, 
the works of Christian apologists are 
too deep, and require too much learn- 
ing on the part of the reader to be 
read by busy people of ordinary edu- 
cation. 

My intention, in this volume, has 
been to group together, and to state 



PREFACE, xi 

in the simplest and most direct Eng- 
lish, some of those evidences which 
have stood the test of time, which 
have never been answered — simply 
l3ecause they are unanswerable. The 
last two sermons — those on Sin and 
on Regeneration — are intended to 
show the practical effects w^hich 
should result from a conviction of 
the truth of revealed religion. They 
are intended to lead those who intel- 
lectually believe to that personal 
repentance and that heart faith, with- 
out which mere belief is of no avail. 



CONTENTS. 



TAGE. 

I. No Mystery — No Faith. . 1 

II. A Message from Heaven 23 

III. The Everlasting Kingdom 47 

IV^. AVhat Think Ye of Christ ? 67 

V. The Three Witnesses 93 

VI. The Experimental Proof 123 

VlI. Sin 145 

yi[[. Regeneration 167 



I. 

No Mystery— No Faith. 



Is.LiAH xlv, 15. ^'Verily thou art a God that hidest 
thyself.'' 

OuK whole existence in this world 
is involved in mystery. The wisest 
and most learned of men are pro- 
foundly ignorant of many things 
which come nearest to us. Our 
birth, our life, our death, our bodies, 
our minds, our feelings, our nourish- 
ment, our growth, our decay, our 
material and spiritual environment 
are all deep, unfathomable myster- 
ies. Scientific men explore and 
investigate. Philosophers reason. 
Theories are propounded. Systems 
are constructed, and wise men an- 
nounce their discoveries and their 
conclusions to an admiring world. 
And what does it all amount to? 
Isaac Newton, the greatest, the wis- 



4 NO MYSTERY— NO FAITH. 

est, as well as the most humble or 
them all, declared that he was bat a 
little child picking up pebbles on the 
shore of an infinite ocean. We must 
confess that all we know of nature 
and of life — the whole sum of human 
knowledge, is as nothing compared 
with what we do not and cannot 
know. 

In whatever direction we turn our 
curious investigations, we soon come 
to an impassable barrier, beyond 
which it is useless for us to try to 
penetrate. For instance, suppose 
that like Solomon we desire to know 
all about the plants and the trees — 
from the hyssop that is upon the 
wall, to the cedar that glorifies the 
slopes of Mt. Lebanon — we proceed 
to study with careful industry the 
peculiarities of form, of color, of 
growth of many thousand specimens. 
Then we classify and arrange them. 
We give them names and place each 
one in its proper order. We discover 
certain laws of development, and by 



NO MYS TEE 1'- NO FAITH . 5 

fulfilling certain ascertained condi- 
tions we can even control to some 
extent the form and color of the 
plant. But who knows what the 
life is which underlies all this? Who 
has discovered the hidden principle 
contained in the seed? Who can tell 
how it is that sun and rain and earth 
combine with that mysterious germ 
to produce the green herb, or the 
flower of the field, or the stately 
forest tree? Who has succeeded in 
making, by art and man's device, 
even the most insignificant growing 
plant? Here we have reached the 
barrier, and beyond this limit the 
youngest infant is as wise as Solo- 
mon himself. 

So again the anatomist and phys- 
iologist have examined the human 
frame with minute and patient atten- 
tion, and all the strange and compli- 
cated machinery of our bodies, by 
which we move and walk and eat 
and sleep — all the wonderfully har- 
monious relations and interdepend- 



6 NO MYSTERY— NO FAITH. 

encies of these useful organs and 
members are, or we may believe will 
be known and described, but here 
again the limit is reached. The liv- 
ing soul, the thinking mind, the sad 
or joyful emotion of the heart, the 
action of the will upon brain and 
nerve and sinew, — all these, which 
are the very essentials of man, are 
mysteries about w^hich the most 
learned and ingenious can tell us no 
more than the most ignorant and 
foolish of men. 

The truth is, that on every side of 
us — above, below, within, without 
us — in the air we breathe, in the 
food we eat, in the thoughts we 
think — in the whole course of life, 
and in the whole sphere of nature, 
God is present, working out the 
wonders of his will; and hence mys- 
teries abound, and human intellect 
is baffled, and human curiosity is 
rebuked, and human pride is hum- 
bled. 

The finite cannot grasp the infin- 



NO MYSTERY— NO FAITH. 7 

ite, and with all our boasted progress 
we have only learned the first letters 
of an alphabet, the literature of 
which fills the universe to its remot- 
est bound — we have but touched the 
outer hem of the garment with which 
God is clothed. 

Thus, whichever way we turn in 
search of truth, we are soon con- 
fronted by questions which no human 
wisdom can solve, and which bafSe 
the most careful and painstaking 
investigation. 

Now since this is so; since in the 
structure of our own bodies and 
minds — since in all our relations 
w4th the material world there is so 
much that is mysterious and inexpli- 
cable — it would be strange indeed if 
in our relations with our Creator 
everything were plain and simple 
and easily understood by our finite 
intelligence. 

While the sciences of nature and 
of man — the sciences of things vis- 
ible and tangible — are limited and 



:8 NO MYSTERY— NO FAITH. 

imperfect, by reason of the limita- 
tion of our powers, we may certainly 
expect that religion, the science of 
the supernatural, the science of God, 
of the invisible and spiritual, will 
be compassed with difficulties alto- 
gether insurmountable by human 
reason. We may expect to meet with 
facts which we cannot explain, and 
which we cannot harmonize in any 
exact system of thought, or even ex- 
press in any logical formula of words 
and phrases. Even with all the light 
which revelation sheds upon our spir 
itual conditions and our relations 
with God — with all the illuminating 
and guiding influences of the Holy 
Spirit, with all the instruction af- 
forded by the Christian experience 
of many generations — there is yet 
much, very much, of which we are 
left in utter ignorance. There are 
many high mysteries which are far 
above our comprehension, and which 
we cannot by any means reduce 
writhin the scope of finite reasoning. 



XO MYSTERY— XO FAITH. 9 

The alchemists of the middle ages 
devoted their lives to the discovery 
of the philosopher s stone, which 
should transmute the baser metals 
into gold. The modern scientific 
man, who imagines that he can pen- 
etrate nature's secret of the source 
and origin of life, is the victim of an 
infatuation quite as irrational. And 
equally foolish and futile is the labor 
of those who would explain in the 
terms of exact science the mysteries 
of the Divine Being, or construct a 
logical and consistent system which 
shall include all the facts regarding 
sin and salvation. 

No doubt the studies and researches 
of the theologians have great value — 
so long as they have for their object 
the clearer knowledge of the word 
of God; the more vivid illustration 
of Christian truth; the more impres- 
sive arrangement of the facts of 
religion; the more appropriate de- 
fense of the doctrines of the Bible. 
But Vvdien they go beyond all this. 



10 NO MYSTERY— NO FAITH. 

and attempt to set forth a complete 
system of doctrine, and claim for it 
logical consistency throughont,, and 
the authority of absolute truth; 
when they attempt to formulate divine 
revelation and pretend to cover the 
whole ground of theoretical religion 
with their definitions and statements, 
then they are going beyond their 
proper work, and the result is con- 
fusion and contradiction. 

Take for example the Calvinistic 
system of theology, as set forth in the 
Doctrinal Standards of the Presby- 
terian Church, probably the most log- 
ical and consistent ever constructed. 
Their statements, for the most part, 
express revealed truth in clear and 
precise terms, but after all they do 
not, strictly speaking, present a sys- 
tem. It is not a perfect and har- 
monious whole, and the effbrt to force 
dogmas, which are true, into logical 
ao:re(?ment within the range of human 
xeasoning, has resulted in some state- 
ments which are both unscriptural 



NO MYSTERY— NO FAITH. U 

and absurd. No doubt, however, 
systematic theology has its place and 
its use, when too much is not claimed 
for it; but we must be careful to 
acknowdedge and emphasize the fact 
that there are many things about 
God and religion that we do not know 
and need not expect to know this 
side the grave. "Verily thou art a 
God that hidest thyself." 

Now there are many who are 
checked in their approach to Chris- 
tianity by this fact of mystery, this 
unsearchableness of God and divine 
truth. They want to know all about 
God before they will believe on Him. 
They demand that all diflSculties shall 
be removed and all mysteries solved 
before they will accept Christ as their 
Savior or take the precepts of the 
gospel as their guide in life. When 
you point them to the Lord Jesus 
Christ as the redeemer of the world, 
and urge them to believe on Him and 
be saved — they ask you to reconcile 
God's sovereignty and man's free 



12 NO MYSTERY— NO FAITH, 

"will; or else they enter upon a dis- 
cussion of the origin of evil, or of 
eternal punishment, or of the nature 
of the Trinity, or of the atonement, 
or of the incarnation — and they re- 
fuse to go a step toward Christ, in 
practical trust and love, until these 
vast and mysterious questions are 
settled. 

But surely this is not wise; it is 
not reasonable. You do not and 
could not take up such a position in 
regard to other matters. There are 
mysteries everywhere, and to be con- 
sistent you should also refuse to 
think, until it is settled by the scien- 
tific authorities just what thought is, 
and whether it is the cause or the 
efffect of cerebral motion. And you 
should refuse to eat your daily bread, 
until you are informed how it is that 
the planted seed breaks forth into 
new life and produces, "first the 
blade, then the ear, after that the 
full 3orn in the ear." 

What Christ asks of you is that 



NO MYSTERY— NO FAITH. 13: 

you should believe on Him as your 
personal Lord and deliverer — as one 
who is able and willing to save you 
from the grasp of your own sin, and 
from all its evil consequences. He 
wants you to trust his friendship, 
and to leave all your highest inter- 
ests in his care and keeping. And 
all these puzzling philosophical and 
theological questions are of second- 
ary importance. If j^ou can arrive 
at a satisfactory belief concerning 
them, well and good; but if not, then 
learn to hold them in abeyance and 
wait patiently until the Holy Spirit 
shall lead you into all truth. Mean- 
Avhile it is enough if you trust Christ 
as your Savior, and try to do his 
will. What I urge is this — Look at 
the Lord Jesus, study his life in the 
gospels, examine his character, note 
his spirit, become familiar with the 
principles of his teaching, and see- 
ing — ^believe! Believe on Him per- 
sonally. Never mind the intricacies 
of theology. Never mind w^hat is. 



14 NO MYSTERY— NO FAITH. 

hidden and mysterious . Just believe 
on Jesus Christ. If you really desire 
to find the tnith, you certainly cannot 
fail to recognize that truth which 
shines in His life and teachings, there- 
fore unite yourself to Him; surren- 
der yourself to His control; adopt 
His principles and follow His guid- 
ance. This is the kind of faith which 
the gospel demands. This is what 
is meant by receiving the Kingdom 
of Heaven as a little child. Lay 
aside the pride of intellect. Do not 
stop to reason out the hoio and the 
why of every question. Do not wait 
to solve every mystery, but simply 
cling to Jesus with the trust and love 
of the heart, and that, because he is 
so evidently worthy of trust and love. 
Thus only can we be saved, and thus 
only can we come to an assured con- 
viction of the higher truths of Kev- 
elation. 

Let a man walk in the light so far 
as it shines for him, and it will shine 
more and more unto the perfect day. 



NO MYSTERY— NO FAITH. 15 

Let him live up to what he does 
know and his knowledge will surely 
increase. As Christ says, "If any 
man will do His will, he shall know 
of the doctrine." 

And besides, as a matter of fact, 
the principal difficulties at which 
men stumble, and which they urge 
as objections to Christianity, are not 
at all peculiar to Christianity. If 
you deny Christianity, if you destroy 
the Bible, if you give up all faith in 
a personal God, the same puzzling 
questions remain unanswered. You 
are no nearer to a solution of the 
mystery, and you have lost all ground 
and reason for the exercise of faith. 

For example, men object to the 
doctrine of predestination; they say 
that it interferes with our free choice, 
and that they do not see how there 
can be any justice in punishing men 
for anything, if all their circumstan- 
ces and all their acts are predestined 
by the Creator, so that they cannot 
help themselves. They refuse to 



16 NO MYSTERY— NO FAITH, 

accept a religion which contains so 
glaring a contradiction. But, if you 
think of it, this difficulty is not made 
by the Bible, nor by Christianity. It 
belongs to the very nature of things^ 
and cannot be got rid of. It puzzled 
the ancient heathen philosophers of 
Greece and Rome, and the shrewdest 
of modern scientific skeptics has no 
key to unlock the mystery. If you 
say there is no God; if you refer all 
existence and all events to an endless 
chain of cause and effect, making all 
the activities of man and of nature 
but the result of eternal law, you 
still have predestination, though now 
it is the predestination of an imper-^ 
sonal, blind, iinTnoTsl fate, instead of 
the righteous and intellio;ent order- 
ing of a personal creator. And you 
still have the punishment of sin, in 
the degradation and misery which 
follow evil-doing — though you may 
choose to call it by a different name. 
So true is it that God's judgments 
are unsearchable, and his waj^s past 



NO MYSTERY— NO FAITH. 17 

finding out. How foolish then it is 
for us to shut our eyes to the light 
which He has graciously giyen us in 
His word, and to reject the truth 
which we might possess, because we 
may not know everything — because 
we are not all at once admitted into 
all the secrets of creation and of 
Proyidence. 

Our subject has also a practical 
application to those of us who are 
Christians — who haye accepted the 
essentials of reliction — haye taken 
the Bible for our guide and are try- 
ing to liye according to the truth as 
it is in Jesus. Some of us are per- 
haps tempted to speculate too much 
about the hidden things of Grod and 
so to darken our minds and neglect 
the plain and simple duties of Chris- 
tianity. 

No doubt there are truths reyealed 
in God's word which can only be 
discoyered and understood by long 
study and patient inyestigation, and, 
it may be, much discussion; but you 



18 NO MYSTERY— NO FAITH, 

and I, who necessarily have our time 
and our thoughts so largely filled 
with the practical duties of everj^ 
day life in the busy world; you and 
I, who are comparatively ignorant 
and unlearned, are not called upon 
to engage in this work. This search- 
ing out and discussion of the deep 
things of Scripture are to be done by 
men especially fitted for it — men 
whose education, and training, and 
circumstances, and intellectual char- 
acteristics are calculated to make 
them wdse and skillful and able to 
discriminate between philosophical 
truth and error. And then we can 
take their conclusions and test them 
by the word of Grod, and accept or 
reject them, or hold them in doubt 
with what intelligence we may pos- 
sess. 

And in this limitation of our abil- 
ity to understand, or even to form 
independent opinions , concerning 
many things in Scripture, there is 
no hardship, nothing against the 



NO MYSTERY— XO FAITH. 19 

simplicity of religion. All the essen- 
tial truths of Christianity, all the 
doctrines which we need for our 
guidance in the ordinary affairs of 
life, are written plainly here, so that 
the wayfaring man, though a fool, 
need not err therein. And wdiateyer 
is not thus clear and plain on the 
face of Scripture, whateyer high and 
mysterious things may be found by 
careful searching here, we can afford 
to differ about, without bitterness. 
Or, eyen if we form no definite and 
positiye opinion concerning them, I 
suppose that we shall not endanger 
our souls. It would be pleasant, no 
doubt, to haye all these questions 
cleared up, once for all, but there is 
something far more important for us 
to striye after than the solution of 
theological puzzles— "Yet show I 
unto you a more excellent way, '" 
•'•' '''' though I understand all mys- 
teries and all knowledo;e, and have 
not loye, I am nothing." ''Follow 
after loye." 



20 NO MYSTERY— NO FAITH. 

In conclusion, as the sum of the 
whole matter, let us all be more 
modest in our opinions of God and 
of religion, not given to profane and 
vain babblings, which increase to 
more ungodliness, but in all humility 
remember that we are weak and fal- 
lible in judgment, and that our pow- 
ers of discernment are extremely 
limited. There are many things 
which we do not know, and are not 
likely to know until death has opened 
wider the gates of knowledge for us. 

But, blessed be God, there are 
some olorious thinsfs which we do 
know — " We knoic that all things 
work together for good to them that 
love God" — so that we need not be 
greatly disturbed by any of the vicis- 
situdes of life; and "We knoio that 
if the earthly house of our tabernacle 
be dissolved, we have a building from 
God, a house not made with hands, 
eternal, in the heavens" — so that we 
need fear no disaster in the approach 
of death. And '' We know that when 



NO MYSTERY— NO FAITH, 21 

He shall appear, we shall be like 
Him, for we shall see Him as He is'' 
— so that a glorious and sinless fu- 
ture is in store for us. And then, 
as inclusive of all joy and peace, as 
containing everything that our hearts 
could desire, "We are persuaded that 
neither death, nor life, nor angels, 
nor principalities, nor powers, nor 
things present, nor things to come, 
nor height, nor depth, nor any other 
creature shall be able to separate us 
from the love of God which is in 
Christ Jesus our Lord." 

Having all these certainties, rejoic- 
ing in the possession of these price- 
less truths, surely we can be content 
to wait until our powers are devel- 
oped in a better world, until the light 
of God's presence shall fill us with 
spiritual illumination — we can wait 
God's own time, to be led into all 
truth, and to know even as we are 
known. 



II. 



A Message from Heaven. 



II. 



Ps.iLM cxix, 105. ^^ Thy Word is a lamp unto my 
feet and a light unto my paih.^^ 

In attempting to answer the ques- 
tion, Is the Bible a Message from 
Heaven? I shall assume the existence 
of God and the immortality of the 
soul. I take for granted that there 
is a Supreme Being, all powerful, all 
wise, who made the heavens and the 
earth, who upholds and governs the 
universe, and that what we call 
Nature and the Laws of Nature are 
God's methods of workino^ out His 
will through and upon His creatures. 

And I take for granted, that man 
is immortal, that he has an invisible, 
undying soul, and that he was made 
to know and love and serve his 
Maker. His true, ideal life can only 
be developed through intei course 



26 A MESSAGE FR03f HEAVEN. 

and communion with God. The 
things which begin, continue and 
end within the brief period of his 
existence on the earth — things which 
belong to his body and bodily com- 
fort — cannot meet the wants of his 
higher nature or satisfy the longings 
and aspirations of his soul. God 
and truth and love, things unseen 
and eternal, can alone supply his 
deepest needs. As Jesus said, "Man 
shall not live by bread alone, but by 
every word that proceedeth out of 
the mouth of God." 

To those who deny these funda- 
mental truths, the following argu- 
ment has no force or value. If, how 
ever, we do believe in a personal God 
and in our own immortality, then, 
indeed, it is no difficult matter to 
show that our faith in the Bible as a 
message from Heaven is a Reason- 
able Faith. 

For the sake of convenience, let 
us divide the subject in this way — 
first. Has God given a supernatural 



A MESSAGE FROM HEAVEN. 27 

revelation to men? and, secondly, If 
He has done so, is the Bible that 
divine, supernatural revelation? Let 
us take up these questions sepa- 
rately: And, first, Has God given 
man a supernatural revelation of 
Himself and His will? I answer 
that the need for such a revelation 
would seem to indicate that it would 
be given. If it be true that men can 
only reach their true destiny by 
knowing God and doing His will, 
how necessary it is that God should 
in some way make Himself and His 
will known to us? 

If we turn to nature for light and 
instruction, we can indeed learn 
much of the power and wisdom of 
the Creator. "The heavens declare 
the glory of God, and tho firmament 
showeth His handiwork," but of love 
and mercy, of righteousness and 
duty, nature teaches us little or 
nothing. When we question her in 
regard lo these things; when we 
inquire concerning the disposition 



2S A MESSAGE FROM HEAVEN. 

of the Almighty toward us; when 
we seek information about our rela- 
tions to Him, and the duty He re- 
quires of us, the answers which 
nature gives are confused and enig- 
matical, like the answers of the old 
heathen oracles, which might mean 
one thing or the opposite thing, ac- 
cording to the wishes and prejudices 
of the questioner. 

Do you ask nature whether God 
regards us with love, or hatred, or 
indifference? As you gaze with ad- 
miration upon the full-laden yellow 
wheat, bending gracefully in the 
summer breeze, or yielding its rich 
store to the husbandman; or, as you 
watch the silent, changeful beauty 
of earth and sky, when the sun is 
going down beyond distant hills; or, 
as you think of fragrant flowers, and 
luscious fruits, and abundant har- 
vests — of all the beautiful and benefi- 
cent things which nature provides — 
then indeed it does seem as if she 
proclaimed with clear voice, in un- 



A MESSAGE FROM HE A VEN. 29 

mistakable tones, the great truth 
that God is Love. 

But now, when we turn from these 
suggestions of peace and comfort; 
when we regard the loathsome ver- 
min, the poisonous reptile, the fierce 
wild beast; when we look upon na- 
ture in her wild, destructive moods — 
in the tempest, driving the mariner 
upon a rocky coast; in the earth- 
quake, destroying man and his works ; 
in the avalanche, sweeping away 
without mercy whole villages of 
Alpine peasants; or when we think 
of what nature can do in her times 
of bitterness and hard cruelty— when 
the pestilence desolates the happiest 
homes; or when the heavens with- 
hold the early and the latter rains, 
and the husbandman's toil is of no 
avail, and the earth refuses to bring 
forth her increase and famine comes 
among the people — then nature ap- 
pears to contradict herself, and we 
read upon her stern countenance 
nothing of our Maker's love; but as 



30 A MESSAGE FROM HEAVEN, 

she frowns upon us, she seems to 
utter the awful message — God is 
hate. 

So, again, if we inquire of nature 
whether God is just and righteous in 
his judgments, the answer is con- 
fused, uncertain, contradictory to 
our ears. We see indeed, oftentimes, 
the working out of evil consequences 
to those who sin; and we see certain 
virtues rewarded with healtli and 
plenty; but again we look, and be- 
hold — the innocent are suffering with 
the guilty, or the wicked are pros- 
pering in the world, while the good 
uian is in misery and want. 
' But if external nature gives us no 
€lear rule of life, no definite infor- 
mation of God and of His dealings 
with us, may we not learn all that is 
needful for us to know from the light 
of reason, and the law written within 
on the heart and conscience? 

No , doubt much is given here ; God 
has placed a witness of Himself in 
every breast. There is a law written 



A MESSAGE EBOM HE A VEX. 31 

on the heart. The conscience is a 
divine voice — the thoughts do accuse 
or else excuse each other. Ideas of 
sin and of justice rise intuitively in 
the mind, and in the honest search 
for truth many things come to light 
which reveal something of the nature 
and of the will of God. 

But how dim and confused are the 
notions thus obtained, and how un- 
availing they are to bring peace to 
the troubled soul. When the con- 
science accuses of sin, and dark mis- 
givings arise about the future, and 
the heart trembles in fear of divine 
wrath, what can reason tell you 
of forgiveness and cleansing? And 
amid the various different theories 
of life and duty; amid all the con- 
flicting views of man's obligations 
and of his destiny, how is the soul 
to find certainty and rest? 

No; the world by wisdom cannot 
know God. And no philosopher has 
ever been w^ise enough to construct 
a scheme of deliverance from the 



32 A MESSAGE FROM HE A VEN. 

power of sin that has any permanent 
practical value. 

What then? Is it possible that 
Ood has left ns to the guidance of 
these flickering lights and inarticu- 
late voices? With this great need 
crying in our souls; with this press- 
ing necessity to know our Maker and 
to know His will, has He left us to 
wander in darkness and perish in 
ignorance? Will He never definitely 
and clearly speak to man and har- 
monize the seemingly contradictory 
revelations of nature? Will he never 
point out the path by which the race 
may arrive at a higher and nobler 
state of existence? 

These are questions which rise in 
the human mind in all ages, and the 
instinctive answer which the univer- 
sal human heart gives to them is, 
that there is, that there must be such 
a direct supernatural revelation. 

It is this natural and universal 
expectation of a definite and positive 
communication from Heaven that 



A MESSAGE FROM HE A VEN. 33 

has led men to put faith in magicians 
and astrologers and soothsayers. It 
was this that gave the Oracles of 
Greece their influence in the ancient 
world. It is this instinctive belief— 
this belief that the Heavens- are not 
brass — this belief that God will send 
a message to His intelligent crea- 
tures — it is this that accounts for all 
heathen religions, with their fetiches 
and sacrifices, their altars and 
priests; and it is this that in Chris- 
tian lands leads people who deny 
the Bible to believe in dreams and 
omens, and to resort to clairvoyants, 
and fortune-tellers and spiritual me- 
diums. 

Now, when we find a belief uni- 
versal, in all ages and among all races 
of men, we may be sure that it points 
to some fact of vast and universal 
interest. This is one of the great 
arguments for the being of God. 
Men may and do differ as to the 
nature of God, but that there is a 
God, all tribes and generations of the 



34 A MESSAGE FROM HEAVEN. 

human race have asserted. Now, if 
there is no fact to correspond to this 
idea, where did the idea come from? 
How does it happen that the Bush- 
men of Africa, and the Esquimaux 
of Labrador, and the most enlight- 
ened nations of Europe and America 
all agree in the firm, unshakable be- 
lief that there is a God? We feel 
that the only explanation of this uni- 
versal belief is to be found in its 
truth. 

And in the same way, the fact that 
the belief in revelation is universal 
is strong evidence that there is a 
revelation. 

But if it be conceded that there is 
nothing incredible in the fact of a 
supernatural revelation; that the Cre- 
ator can, if He chooses, communicate 
His will to His creatures; and if it be 
still further admitted that the great 
need and the universal expectation of 
such a message make it, to say the 
least, highly probable that He has 
done so; then our second question 



A MESSAGE FROM HEAVEN. 35 

remains — "Is the Bible that Mes- 
sage?" Is it indeed, and no other, 
the Word of God? How do we know 
that its contents were revealed from 
Heaven? May we not find a divine 
message in other books which claim 
to be inspired? 

These are certainly fair qnestions 
— questions which it is well to ask, 
and which should be thoughtfully 
considered and carefully answered, 

Xo intelligent Christian need be 
afraid to examine the foundations of 
his faith. If there is no good reason 
for accepting the Bible, then every 
honest man ought to reject it. If its 
claims to be the Word of God are 
not well founded, then it is folly to 
take it for our guide, or to build any 
hope upon its promises. 

Without attempting any elaborate 
or exhaustive argument to prove the 
divine origin of the scriptures, I wish 
simply to call attention to two facts 
which point that way, and I beg of 
you to follow out, in your own minds, 



36 A MESSAGE FROM HE A VEN. 

the line of thought which they sug- 
gest. 

The first fact is, that the Bible 
touches upon and covers the very 
points which we most need to know, 
and which we would naturally expect 
a divine revelation to contain. 

We have spoken of universal ideas, 
as indicating that there must be some 
corresponding reality of immense 
importance to all men. But we also 
noticed that these universal ideas are 
of the most general and indefinite 
character, and never include those 
particulars and details which, for our 
eternal well-being, it is essential that 
we should know. Now, if there be 
a supernatural revelation at all, is it 
not certain that it will give us just 
those particulars — that, indeed, the 
filling out of these universal ideas, 
which are of such surpassing interest 
to us, will be the one grand design 
of a message from Heaven? 

Thus the idea of God is universal; 
but who is God? What are His attri- 



A MESSAGE FROM HEAVEN, 37 

butes? What is His disposition to- 
wards us? Does He love His crea- 
tures, or hate them? Does He regard 
us as a father regards his children, 
or as a taskmaster regards his slaves, 
or is He altogether indifferent to our 
welfare? How can we approach 
Him? With what rites should He 
be worshipped? 

To these questions, nature and rea- 
son, which give us the bare idea of 
God, can yield no answer. But^ 
surely, if there be a siqyer -natural rev- 
elation, we shall find the answer 
there. Surely the first thing we 
would look for in a message from 
Heaven would be some definite infor- 
mation on these important points. 

Again, the idea of right and wrong 
is a universal idea. All men, the 
Avorld over, make a distinction in 
morals. No tribe of men has yet 
been discovered, however io-norant 
and degraded, that does not consider 
some acts right and others wrong. 
Yet while all, without exception, 



38 .4 MESSAGE FROM HEAVEN. 

recognize the distinction, they differ 
widely as to its application, because 
nature gives us no sure standard, no 
rule of righteousness; so that the 
Hindoo mother thinks it right to 
throw her babe into the Ganges river; 
and the Thuo;s of India reo;ard mur- 
der as a noble and praiseworthy act; 
and the American Indian is troubled 
in conscience and convicted of sin, 
if he has no human scalps to hang 
upon his belt. In some lands, lying 
is a virtue, and the best liar is the 
Avorthiest man; and in others, the 
expert thief is the most highly re- 
garded. 

Nor are these confusions and con- 
tradictions to be found only among^ 
the ignorant and superstitious, but 
even the wisest and most enlightened 
ethical teachers, who have had only 
the light of nature to guide them^ 
have come far short of any consist- 
ent and universal standard of morals. 
Aristotle, and Cicero, and Socrates, 
and Gautama, and Confucius, the 



A MESSAGE FROM HE AVE X. 39 

names which represent the high- 
est attainments of the natural man, 
are fatally inconsistent, not only 
with each other, but each with him- 
self. In all their moral systems, 
true and important principles are 
omitted, while false or puerile ones 
are given a prominent place. 

Thus, while nature reveals to us 
the fact that there is a difference 
between right and wrong, she does 
not enable us to know the right from 
the wrong. And yet it is surely of 
vital importance to us to obtain this 
knowledge, and, therefore, is it not 
certain that a message from Heaven, 
if there be such, will contain the 
instruction we need upon this point? 

A third universal idea is that of a 
future state of rewards and punish- 
ments. This idea is closely related 
to the one we have just considered, 
and is as universal as that. Having 
the idea of sin, men have the idea of 
retribution. There is an expectation 
of a coming judgment, which pre- 



40 A MESSAGE FROM HEAVEN. 

vails everywhere, and always has 
prevailed among men. 

Yet how to escape misery, and 
how to secure happiness in the life 
to come; how to get rid of sin, and 
how to avoid its consequences; what 
we must do to be saved — upon all 
this nature throws no clear light; 
and so we see men resorting to all 
sorts of absurd rites and ceremonies 
to placate the offended deity, to in- 
duce him to put away his displeasure; 
and sacrifices are offered, and pen- 
ances are performed, and praying 
machines are turned, for the purpose 
of quieting the conscience and get- 
ting rid of the oppressive burden of 
sin. 

So, too, plans are proposed by wise 
men and philosophers for overcom- 
ing the power of sin and purifying 
society by means of education, or 
legal enactment, or social reforma- 
tion. But sin remains, and the sense 
of guilt and ill -desert remains, and 
the burden of a dark foreboding 



A MESSAGE EEOM HEAVEN. 41 

presses upon the soul. Nature, while 
revealing the fact of sin, provides no 
remedy, brings no relief. 

Can we doubt, then, that if our 
Maker shall see fit to give us any 
supernatural revelation, it wdll have 
much to say of salvation from sin? 
Will it not be sure to teach us how 
to obtain righteousness? Will it not 
bring life and immortality to light, 
and point out the path by which we 
can escape from the power of evil, 
and secure personal holiness and 
everlasting life? 

Is not this a true account of what 
we need — of what we have a right 
to expect in a supernatural revela- 
tion, if we have one at all? And 
now, as a matter of fact, it is just 
upon these three great subjects, in 
w^hich all men are by nature deeply 
interested, that the Bible discourses. 
From beginnino- to end its themes 
are God, and Morality and Salva- 

TTOX. 

The Bible assumes the reality, the 



42 A MESSAGE FROM HE A VEN. 

truth, of these universal ideas, and 
then proceeds to fill them out in all 
necessary details. Here we are told 
all about God that we need to know. 
And what a representation it is— 
glorious majesty, unfailing wisdom, 
incorruptible justice, fatherly love, 
tender pity. Such is the God of the 
Bible — a being of infinite perfections. 
Here, also, are laid down universal 
principles of morality; principles 
which are summed up in the com- 
prehensive law, ''Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, 
and thy neighbor as thyself," — a law 
which can be applied as a rule of con- 
duct in all conceivable circumstances 
and under all imaginable conditions. 
And above all, here is revealed one 
who is not only in His own life a per- 
fect illustration of this perfect law, 
but is also declared to be a compe- 
tent deliverer from the power of sin, 
and a mediator between God and 
man, able to save to the uttermost 
all who come unto God by Him. 



A MESSAGE FROM HE A YEN, 43 

Thus we find in the Bible an an- 
swer to the most anxious question- 
ings of the soul. We find informa- 
tion concerning the very things of 
which we would expect a message 
from Heaven to inform us. This is 
the first fact Vv^hich seems to vindicate 
the claim of the Bible to be divinely 
inspired. 

The second fact is this: That the 
acceptance of the Bible as divine, 
and careful obedience to its precepts, 
lead to the very best results in human 
society. 

Error and falsehood, the world 
over and in all human experience, 
inevitably work misery and degra- 
dation. False principles of life, 
systems founded upon lies and deceit, 
must lead to darkness and death. 
And certainly if the Bible be a lie; 
if its answers to our questions are 
false; if it is a mere human inven- 
tion, while claiming to be a revelation 
from Heaven — such a stupendous 
lie, touching, as it does, such vital 



44 A MESSAGE FROM HEAVEN, 

points, must result in confusion 
worse confounded to all who are 
deceived by it. 

But this is not the effect of faith 
in the Bible. On the contrary, we 
see that men are made better and 
nobler and purer, and more intelli- 
gent, and more useful, and more 
loving, just in proportion to the 
heartiness with which they accept 
this book, and the consistency with 
which they make it the rule and 
guide of their life. And we see that 
society becomes enlightened and 
moral and prosperous, just in propor- 
tion as the Bible and the teachings 
of the Bible are honored and obeyed. 
Is it probable that such results would 
follow from the propagation of a 
fraud and a lie? 

To sum up: We find a pressing 
necessity in the nature and condition 
of men for a supernatural, divine 
revelation, or message from Heaven. 
And we find also a universal expec- 
tation of and belief in the reality of 



A MESSAGE FROM HEAVEN. 45 

such a message. Then, when we 
come to examine the Bible, we find 
it dealing with and answering the 
very questions which men, by na- 
ture, are led to ask most urgently. 
And we find that wherever those 
answers which the Bible gives are 
accepted as true and divine, and are 
consistently acted upon, there the 
purest morality, the clearest light, 
and the highest freedom prevail. But 
how can we account for all this, un- 
less the Bible is what it claims to be, 
a message from Heaven? 

Is it reasonable to suppose that 
any merely human production could 
effect all this? What other book is 
like it? What could take its place? 
Surely the Bible alone is God's word. 
It is Our Father's Message to His 
children. It is a treasure above all 
earthly wealth — a treasure inexhaus- 
tible. Indeed, the more we use it, 
the richer it grows, and in its deep 
mines of precious truth, we may dig 
and search all our lives, and every 



46 A MESSAGE FROM HEAVEN. 

day find something new for our com- 
fort or om^ instruction. 



III. 

The Everlasting Kingdom. 



III. 

Heb. xii, 28. ^^ Wherefore we, receiving a kingdom 
which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby 
we may serve God acceptably with reverence and 
godly fear.'* 

The history and triumphs of the 
Christian Church indicate its divine 
origin and spiritual vitality. 

The proposition is not that because 
the church is a great and successful 
institution, therefore it is of God. 
We all know that mere earthly suc- 
cess is no proof of the divinity of 
Christianity. Whether a religion is 
of God, or of the devil, cannot be de- 
cided by a majority vote. But the 
character, the quality of the success 
which a religion achieves does go far 
toward indicating its truth and its 
value. 

The kind of obstacles it has sur- 
mounted; the nature of the difficul- 



50 THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM. 

ties it has encountered and overcome; 
the general effect upon mankind of 
its real triumphs, and the methods 
by which these triumphs have been 
won, will necessarily influence our 
judgment of its claims. Let us, then, 
rapidly review the history of the 
church, and the accepted facts of 
that history will vindicate to every 
candid mind the assertion that the 
Christian Church is the Church of 
the Living God. 

In the text, as in many other places 
in the New Testament, the church is 
spoken of as a Kingdom. But this 
idea of a Kingdom of God, a Heav- 
enly Kingdom in the earth, did not 
by any means originate with the 
Christian dispensation, or in the 
teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. This 
radiant conception of a sublime mon- 
archy, universal, divine; of an all- 
powerful king reigning among men 
in righteousness and love, is inter- 
woven in all the texture of sacred 
history and of prophecy. 



THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM. 51 

The ancient Jewish theocracy, and, 
later, the Throne of David, were but 
types and fore-shadowdngs of the 
imperishable, human -divine power 
yet to come. Through long genera- 
tions devout and godly men, wearied 
w4th the confusions of earth, had 
hoped and prayed for the establish- 
ment of this promised Kingdom, and 
had anxiously looked for its appear- 
ing. Abraham foresaw it and was 
glad. David, in his inimitable lyrics, 
had sung of its glories. Isaiah, in 
ringing tones, had declared that it 
would surely come, Jeremiah had 
consoled himself and the faithful of 
his time, in the midst of the miser- 
ies and injustice to which they were 
exposed, with the same hope — "A 
King shall reign and prosper, and 
shall execute judgment and justice 
in the Earth." Micah had told of 
its glory and its extent, and Daniel 
had explicitly declared: "The God 
of Heaven shall set up a Kingdom 
which shall never be destroyed; it 



52 THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM. 

shall stand forever." Nay, he had 
gone further, and shown that the 
''Lord's saints" were to constitute 
this Kingdom, and that one like the 
Son of Man was to reign in it. And, 
finally, the immediate herald and 
fore-runner of the King himself ap- 
peared, and John the Baptist an- 
nounced, "The Kingdom of Heaven 
is at hand." 

Thus, in proclaiming the establish- 
ment of a Kingdom, Jesus and His 
Apostles introduced no new and 
strange idea, but simpl}^ declared 
the actual fulfillment of the types 
and prophecies of many centuries. 

But the special point in regard to 
to this Kingdom which I would 
emphasize, is that characteristic of 
it which is mentioned in the text — 
namely, that it ''cannot be moved." 

This Kingdom is an everlasting 
Kingdom. Earthly thrones arise and 
disappear. Earthly powers decay. 
The great monarchies of former days 
have passed utterly away. The pride 



THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM. 53 

and pomp of the mightiest princes 
cannot long withstand the destruc- 
tive influences that sooner or later 
are sure to undermine every earthly 
thing; but the Kingdom which Christ 
established endureth forever. The 
external form of the Kingdom may 
change ; the superficial additions 
w^hich men have made may be swept 
away; but the Kingdom itself, its 
King, its laws, its principles are un- 
changeable and indestructible. The 
heathen have raged against it. The 
kings of the earth have set them- 
selves, and the rulers have taken 
counsel together against the Lord 
and against His Anointed, and yet, 
unmoved amid all storms, unshaken 
by the fiercest assaults, the King- 
dom of God has continued, its power 
ever increasing, and its conquests 
extending on every side. 

I. At first the Jews, with bitter 
hatred and fanatical zeal, tried to 
strangle it at its birth; and then, 
immediately, the mighty power of 



54 THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM, 

pagan Kome was brought to bear 
against it. Yet, although persecuted 
and well nigh crushed, though rav- 
aged with fire and sword, the infant 
church, without the aid of earthly 
arms, steadily advanced, until pagan 
Rome became Christian Rome, and 
the Emperor himself was proud to 
be called the ''Defender of the 
Faith." 

Later on, assailed by the wild, 
barbarous tribes of the heathen 
north, the fierce and cruel worship- 
pers of Woden and Thor, its appa- 
rent overthrow was changed into 
sublime triumph, as the victorious 
Gothic hordes, who had overcome 
the legions of Rome and seized the 
very throne, submitted in turn to 
the all -conquering power of Chris- 
tian truth, and the Kingdom of God 
extended its boundaries to the north- 
ern shores of Europe. 

The Mohammedan powers of Asia 
next armed themselves against the 
Kingdom, and, for awhile, it seemed 



THE EVEELASTIXG KIXGDOM. 55 

as if the Cross must yield to the 
Crescent. Slaying -without mercy 
all ^yho opposed them, and treating 
with the utmost cruelty those who 
would not abjure Christianity and 
accept the false Prophet, they pene- 
trated to the very heart of Christian 
Europe, and held possession of some 
of the fairest lands and some of the 
richest cities on the continent. But 
the tide was rolled back, and now 
all men can see that Islamism has 
had its day; its glory and its terror 
have departed, and the vast Turkish 
empire, which has so long embodied 
and maintained its principles, is 
rapidly crumbling to pieces under 
the silent but mighty influences 
w^hich the Kingdom of God is exer- 
cising in the affairs of men. 

II. But this Kingdom has proved 
its stability by withstanding other 
assailants no less vindictive, no less 
powerful than these. From the very 
first the "wisdom of this world" has 
arrayed itself against ''the truth," 



56 THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM. 

and from one generation to another 
has renewed its attacks upon the 
Kingdom of Heaven. 

As early as the days of Paul and 
John, and for many years after, 
the different sects of Gnostic and 
ManichaGan philosophers, with their 
strange combination of Paganism, 
Judaism, and Christian mysticism, 
led astray many foolish souls, and, 
at length, even in the church itself, 
absurd and iiiystical errors threat- 
ened to supplant the pure teaching 
of Scripture and to destroy the holy 
power of Christ's kingdom of truth. 
But neo-platonism is a thing of the 
past. Gnosticism no longer endan- 
gers the integrity of Christian doc- 
trine. The Manichaeans exist as but 
a name in history, while the Word 
of the Lord, the Kingdom of Heaven, 
endureth, and shall endure forever. 

Again, in the thirteenth and fif- 
teenth centuries, when the world had 
awakened from the profound sleep 
of the dark ages; when learning be- 



THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM. 57 

gaii to prevail in Europe, and the 
ancient classics were studied, and 
art and poetry were revived, men 
thought that they could do without 
Christianity — that they had found a 
new and better way. The old truths 
were laughed at, as foolish fables, 
and the world's wisdom declared 
that the sweetness and light, the 
beauty and strength contained in the 
literature of Greece and Rome were 
sufficient for the regeneration of men, 
and that now Christianity, with other 
superstitions, must disappear, and 
the Kingdom of Heaven be dismissed 
as one of the great infatuations of 
the race, of which men, with their 
new enlightenment, ought to be 
ashamed. 

In the eighteenth century the grave 
and earnest Deism of such men as 
Hume, in England, and Lessing, in 
Germany, set itself to overthrow the 
Kingdom by argument and philoso- 
phy, wdiile the shallow and frivolous 
materialism of Bolingbroke and Vol- 



58 THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM. 

taire and Tom Paine sought its des- 
truction by wit and ridicule. 

But in less than a hundred years 
the enemies of the Kingxlom had 
taken up a new position, and were 
making their attacks on a different 
ground; and then serious and rever- 
ential skepticism became fashion- 
able, and the sentimentalism of Ee- 
nan, with its fascinating beauty of 
style, was brought forward as the 
complete refutation of Christia±. the- 
ology, and many weak minds were 
turned from the truth. 

And now, in these last days, come 
the apostles of science. Carried 
away with the conceit of their dis- 
coveries in the realms of natural 
law; puffed up by the success of their 
investigations; blinded by their ex- 
clusive devotion to material things, 
they declare, with great flourish of 
trumpets, that to them, at length, 
the Kingdom of Heaven must yield, 
and scientific culture must be ac- 
cepted as a substitute for Christian- 



THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM. 59 

ity, for securing the progress and 
salvation of humanity. 

But, above nature is the super- 
natural; beyond the material is the 
spiritual; beyond the world and the 
stars is God; and there is no more 
possibility that the scientific infidel- 
ity of to-day will prevail, than that 
Hell will conquer Heaven. The 
Kinojdom of God is an everlasting 
Kingdom, and true science can only 
help to strengthen its foundations, 
and to extend its boundaries. We 
hear much talk of the conflict be- 
tween science and religion. There 
is no such conflict. The man of 
science may contend against the 
Bible; and the ecclesiastic msiy pro- 
test against giving attention to scien- 
tiflc facts; and so between these two 
men there may be conflict. But the 
scientist is not science, and the 
ecclesiastic is not religion, and be- 
tween these two there is the absolute 
harmony of their common source, 

Let science, then, pu.rsue her in- 



63 THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM. 

vestigations, and we will bid lier 
God-speed, Let her bring forth all 
light, and all knowledge, and read 
to us all the record of the rocks and 
of the stars, and she will but build 
up the Kingdom of God. True 
science is the handmaid of religion, 
and every fact is in exact and beau- 
tiful harmony with the doctrines of 
Christianity. 

Believing, as we do, that the King- 
dom of God not only includes the 
past and the present, but is destined 
with ever -widening influence to em- 
brace the unfolding future, we ex- 
pect, with full assurance, that all 
true discoveries which men may 
make, in the earth or in the heavens, 
will only help to glorify our King, 
and to justify our faith in Jesus as 
"Lord over all, blessed forever." 

in. But besides having survived 
the persecution, and overcome the 
opposition of earthly rulers and 
kingdoms; besides having withstood 
the more subtle assaults of vain 



THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM. (Si 

philosophy and "science, falsely so 
called," the Kingdom of God has 
manifested its vitality and given 
assurance of its permanence, by 
purging itself of the corruptions and 
errors which have at times threat- 
ened to eat out its life, and utterly 
to destroy its influence in the world. 
This is the strongest and most con- 
vincing proof of durability. The 
power of self-reformation indicates 
a real vitality. 

Before the time of Martin Luther, 
the church had sunk to the lowest 
depths of depravity. The light of 
truth had become very dim; the fra- 
grance of virtue very faint. Mor- 
ality and religion were most unnat- 
urally divorced. 

Open, shameless licentiousness, 
and cruelty and dishonesty pre- 
vailed everywhere. The Popes were 
tyrants and murderers ; the cardinals 
were libertines and intriguers; the 
bishops lived in luxurious, sinful 
pleasure; the priests were idle, vie- 



62 THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM. 

ious, good-for-nothing; the people, 
corrupted by the public sale of 
indulgences for all sorts of sins, 
degraded by the wretched idolatry 
to which their relio^on had degene- 
rated, and led on by the example of 
their spiritual shepherds, were super- 
stitious, depraved, immoral. Indeed, 
the Kingdom of God had apparently 
become the corrupter of mankind. 

Has, then, this Kingdom proved 
itself a failure? Are its claims 
false? Is it unequal to the task 
assigned it? And must it now be 
swept away to make room for some 
new instrument for the help of poor 
humanity? Or, if it be possible to 
restore it to its original purity and 
make it effective for good, is it nec- 
essary that the Almighty should 
bring to bear upon it, from without, 
some unique, miraculous energy? 

No; it is still the Kingdom of God. 
Nor has it ever been deserted by its 
King; and, beneath all the corrup- 
tion, and superstition, and ignorance 



THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM, 6a 

of those sad times, vital forces are 
at work — vital forces which are in- 
herent in the veiy essence of the 
Kingdom. Silently the truth is win- 
ning its way in many humble souls; 
until, presently, from the very 
heart of the church, the light shines 
forth, and a clear, strong voice is 
heard asserting the supremacy of 
Jesus Christ and declaring the true 
principles of his Kingdom. 

And so the Reformation began; 
and righteousness and truth and the 
pure worship of God were once more 
established among men — not by ,the 
application of any new force; not by 
any external pressure; but by the 
revival of that immortal divine en- 
ergy already and always in the 
Kingdom itself. 

Thus, also, in the last century, 
when worldliness and loose mor- 
als, indifference and skepticism 
abounded in the church; when the 
Christian religion seemed to be little 
more than a dry theology, with no 



64 THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM. 

practical bearing on the daily life of 
those who professed and called 
themselves Christians; Avhen the 
influence of the Kingdom of God 
in the affairs of men could scarcely 
be discerned; then it was that from 
out the bosom of the apparently 
lifeless church came Whitefield, 
Eomaine, Toplady and Wesley, as- 
serting and proving the undying 
vital power of Christian truth. And, 
in consequence, the slave trade was 
overthrown, prisons were reformed, 
Sunday - schools were established, 
Bible societies were organized, mis- 
sionaries were sent to all parts of 
the world: all the forms of mod- 
ern Christian activity, which have 
accomplished such wonders, were 
brought into being; and Christian- 
ity became again a real force in 
the world. And all this was the 
result, not of the preaching of 
any new truth, not of the intro- 
duction of any new and unknown 
element into the Kingdom of God: 



THE F.VEELASTiyG KINGLOM. Go 

it i'olloAved iiatiirally and necessa- 
rily upon the reassertion of the 
same old truths and principles upon 
Avhich the Kingdom vv^as founded, 
and which have constituted its real 
essence throughout all the ages. 

Thus, the Kingdom of God has 
conquered every foe — surmounted 
every obstacle. Hostile armies, in- 
tellectual power, internal corruption, 
have been unable to withstand its 
glorious progress. Mighty, irresist- 
able, indestructible, it has advanced, 
"fair as the moon, clear as the sun, 
and terrible as an army with ban- 
ners," until to-day its crucified King, 
the peasant of Galilee, wields an 
authority and exercises an influence 
over mankind far greater and more 
extensive than any earthly ruler ever 
dreamed of. 

Have we not, then, every reason 
to believe the w^ord of prophecy, and 
to expect confidently the ''sounding 
of the seventh angel," and the "great 
voices in Heaven saying: The king- 



66 THK EVERLASTING KINGLOM, 

doms of this world are become the 
kingdoms of om^ Lord and of his 
Christ; and he shall reign forever and 
ever "? 

Surely we have received "a King- 
dom which cannot be moved." We 
are the subjects of a King whose 
throne is everlasting. 

Amid all discouragements, under 
all adverse circumstances; confused, 
blinded, perplexed, it may be, in the 
tumult of this evil world, and by the 
smoke and dust of the mighty battle 
with the powers of darkness, let us 
still keep our faith firm in this great 
truth; and with undaunted courage 
and high hope and unshaken con- 
fidence in the King of Kings, join 
in the Psalmist's triumphant qtj, 
"The Lord reigneth, let the earth 
rejoice!" Let us be faithful, loyal 
subjects, serving our King "accept- 
ably, with reverence and godly fear," 
that we may share in those glorious 
victories of His Kingdom with which 
all the future is crowded. 



IV. 
What Think Ye of Christ? 



IV 



John i, 14. ^'And the Word ivas made ^became) 
flesh and dwelt among us, {and we beheld his 
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the 
Father,) full of grace and truth/^ 

Matthew begins his gospel by 
tracing the human genealogy of Our 
Lord to Abraham, the father of the 
Jews, showing that He was the son 
of David, the long-promised Messiah. 
Mark begins with a reference to the 
p)rophets and then immediately in- 
troduces John the Baptist as the 
fore-runner of Christ; and Jesus 
himself at once appears, a full-grown 
man, to be baptized in the Jordan. 
Luke, beginning with the annuncia- 
tion to Zacharias, proceeds in a series 
of exquisite lyrics, to give the cir- 
cumstances connected with the con- 
ception and birth of the holy babe, 
and when he comes to the genealogy, 



70 WHAT THINK YE OF CUEIST f 

he traces it back to Adam, and thus 
connects Jesus with the whole race 
and shows that he is indeed the Son 
of Man. While the gospel written 
by John begins the wonderful story, 
not in time, but in eternity, in that 
immeasurably remote period before 
the foundation of the world, or ever 
the sun and the stars had any being. 
When we take up the Old Testa- 
ment and read the first verse, the 
openins: sentence of Revelation — "In 
the beginning God created the heav- 
ens and the earth," the mind is car- 
ried back over the long centuries of 
human history — through the dim 
ages of prehistoric times — back to 
those vast eras of geologic trans- 
formation, during which the earth 
was being prepared, slowly and pain- 
fully, with great throes and upheav- 
als, for the habitation of man — still 
further back, through untold myri- 
ads of years to that mysterious time 
when the earth v/as "without form 
and void, and darkness w^as upon 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST! 71 

the face of the deep;" nor yet is the 
heginning reached, for who can say 
that this same earth had not abeady 
existed for conntless ages, and 
through many various changes of 
form and use, before it was reduced 
to this chaotic condition? At last, 
wearied with the effort to reduce the 
infinite to our finite measurement of 
time, the mind rests in the eternal 
and uncreated existence of Gron. 

There we find the beginning of the 
world, and there we must find the 
beginnino^ of thought. And now 
when we turn to the first sentences 
of John's gospel, we learn what is 
the true starting point of Christian- 
ity. It does not begin with the birth 
in Bethlehem; nor with the preach- 
ing of John the Baptist; nor with 
the inspired utterances of Messianic 
prophets; nor with Abraham; nor 
yet with Adam, but Christianity 
begins in the heginning. It begins 
Avith God. 

For when Jesus was conceived by 



72 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 

the Holy Ghost and born of the Vir- 
gin Mary, The Word became flesh, 
and, "In the heginniiig was the Word, 
and the Word was with God and the 
Word was God. The same was in 
the beginning with God. All things 
were made by Him, and without 
Him was not anything made that 
was made. In Him was life, and 
the life was the light of men." 

So it was that the Eternal Word, 
the Almighty Creator, the Fountain 
of Light and the Source of Life, 
submitted Himself to the limitations 
of humanity. Not regarding His 
equality with God a thing to be 
grasped. He emptied Himself and 
took the form of a servant and was 
made in the likeness of men. And 
thus, as we look upon the smiling 
infant cradled in Mary's arms; as 
we listen to the boy talking so wisely 
with the doctors in the temple; as 
we think of the young carpenter, 
working at his father's bench in 
Nazareth; as we follow the weary 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 73 

footsteps of the '•man of sorrows" 
by the shores of the Galilean lake, 
over the hill-sides of Judaea, or 
through Jerusalem's busy streets; 
or as we stand and gaze upon the 
Crucified, lifted up that He might 
draw all men unto Him, we are 
contemplating, not merely a supe- 
rior man, not simply an inspired 
prophet, not even the first of created 
beings, but the Creator Himself — 
God manifest in the fiesh. 

This is the great mystery of the 
Incarnation, a mystery, profound and 
unfathomable, the most amazing of 
all miracles, appealing, not to the 
senses, but to faith; not made known 
to us by the testimony of men; not 
discovered by the investigations of 
reason, but revealed from Heaven, 
and proved to our faith by the char- 
acter of Him who declares Himself 
to be the Son of God. 

At the very outset we admit that 
the Incarnation is incomprehensible, 
that it cannot be explained, that the 



74 IV HAT THINK YE OF CHRIST f 

human mind cannot understand it. 
How the Word could become flesh; 
how Jesus could be perfect man and 
at the same time perfect Grod, we do 
not and cannot know. And all the 
flne-spun, subtle arguments, and 
hair-splitting definitions of philos- 
ophers and theologians cannot solve 
the mystery — ^are apt, indeed, to 
confuse the mind and to destroy the 
simplicity of faith. 

Let us, therefore, rather look with 
earnest attention upon Jesus Him- 
self, as He stands before us scarred 
with the wounds of His crucifixion. 
Let us devoutly listen to the words 
which fall from His lips, and so our 
doubts will be silenced and we shall 
exclaim, as Thomas did, ''My Lord 
and my Grod." 

But there are those whose faith is 
staggered by the greatness of the 
mystery. Because they cannot un- 
derstand the Incarnation, because 
they cannot explain it, they will not 
believe it. But surelv that is no 



WHAT TIIIXK YE OF CUEIST f 75 

reason for unbelief. Can you under- 
stand Grod? And will you therefore 
deny that there is a God? Can you 
explain the universe and ho^Y it 
came into being? And will you 
therefore refuse to believe in the 
existence of matter? Nay; are not 
you yourself an incomprehensible 
mystery? Whence came your im- 
material mind? How does it act 
through and upon your material 
body? What is thought? What 
are love and hope and anger and 
desire? Can you fathom the depths 
of human nature, or analyze the 
soul of man? And wull you there- 
fore say that there is no mind, that 
there is no soul? 

But if God is a mystery, and the 
world is a mystery, and if humanity 
itself is a mystery, then should we 
not expect that God coming into the 
world, God ''made in the likeness of 
men," would be of all mysteries the 
most profound and inexplicable? 
And why should we refuse to believe 



76 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST f 

in the God -man, because we cannot 
understand Him, any more than we 
refuse to believe in God because we 
cannot understand Him, or any more 
than we refuse to believe in man 
because we cannot understand him? 
Nor is this mystery one to which 
the human mind has any natural or 
necessary aversion. On the con- 
trary, the idea of the Incarnation of 
the Deity is prominent in almost all 
the heathen mythologies, and we 
trace its partial and often grotesque 
development in the false religions of 
many widely separated races. The 
Greeks and Romans attributed hu- 
man and even brutal features and 
characteristics to their gods. And 
Jupiter and Mercury and a host of 
other deities often walked the earth 
and took part in the affairs of men. 
The Hindoo believes that alreadj^ his 
great god Vishnu has been nine 
times incarnate, and that yet there 
is to be a tenth incarnation of that 
deity, when all the workers of in- 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 17 

iquity shall be destroyed. While in 
the religions myths of the ancient 
Toltec inhabitants of Mexico wo 
even find the story of a miracidoiis 
conception and birth of their snpreme 
god; born, however, not as a babe, 
bnt as a mighty warrior, fnll grown 
and completely armed. 

All these confnsed snggestions of 
the incarnation, weak, foolish, con- 
tradictory as they are, yet indicate 
the longing of the hnman mind for 
interconrse with God, and the deep, 
though vague, conviction that God 
may and does condescend to man's 
estate, in order that that intercourse 
may be secured. And when we turn 
to the Bible account of the origin of 
man, and of his relation to God, we 
see how natural this longing is. 

Here we learn that man is the off*- 
spring of God; that God breathed 
into his nostrils the breath of life, 
and so made him in His own image. 
And although fallen and depraved 
through sin, although separated by 



78 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 

disobedience and rebellion from liia 
Father, man still has a glimmering 
perception of his divine kinship, and 
feels with vagne instinctive j^earn- 
ing after God. 

And here, too, in this account of 
the creation of man we find the nat- 
ural ground or basis of that Incar- 
nation which is the glory of our 
Christian faith. Being made in the 
divine image, and endowed with 
God-like faculties, his life the very 
in-breathing of God, man was de- 
signed and prepared from the first, 
by the original structure of his soul, 
for union with his Maker. A union 
which finds its complete realization 
in the God-man, Christ Jesus. 

Let us look at this divine - 
human person, as He appears in the 
gospels. Let us hearken with rev- 
erence to what He says of Himself, 
and so confirm our faith in the Incar- 
nate God and justify that large hope 
which every Christian may cherish, 
and which makes his future brig^ht 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST f 7^ 

with a glory like imto that of hi^ 
Lord. 

The historical Jesus is now uni- 
versally acknowledged. No scholar 
is found reckless enough to deny 
that the main features of the gospel 
history are true. Howxver bitterly 
or how^ever sadly the skeptic 
may refuse to accept the super- 
natural and the divine in Jesus of 
Nazareth, he is compelled to admit 
Jesus Himself to a place in history. 
The footprints of the Galilean 
prophet are so deep, so plain and 
distinct, even to this day, that the 
very blindness of unbelief cannot 
refuse to see them. 

As Simeon held the infant Jesus 
in his arms in the temple, he de- 
clared that the child was set for a 
sign that should be spoken against. 
And so, indeed. He has been a sign 
from that day to this. He is a sign 
to w^hich the eyes of men are ever 
turned, w^hether they will or no. 
He may be spoken against. He may 



BO WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 

be reviled, He may be insulted, He 
may be patronized. He may be re- 
jected, but He cannot be ignored. 
There He stands, compelling the 
attention of mankind, and forcing 
upon all minds the question, '* What 
think ye of Christ?" 

The man is and must be acknowl- 
edged, even though the God be de- 
nied. "EcceHomo!" cries modern 
unbelief, and glorifies the ideal 
liumanity of Jesus; but when we 
would add "Ecce Deus !" it turns 
away in pity or in scorn at our super- 
stition. Yet Jesus Himself, this 
ideal man, claims for Himself, in 
unmistakable language, all that we 
<3laim for Him. 

To the multitude at Jerusalem He 
declares, "My Father worketh hith- 
erto and I work," and when the 
Jews naturally accept this as an 
assumption of equality with Grod, 
He does not rebuke them, or charge 
them with misrepresenting or mis- 
understanding Him. On the con- 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 81 

traiy, He confirms their interpre- 
tation of His words by insisting that 
all should honor the Son even as 
they honor the Father. 

A. little later in His ministry He 
stands in the very court of the tem- 
ple of God and declares "Before 
Abraham v^as I am," which was such 
an unequivocal claim to Godhood 
that the people immediately rushed 
upon Him to stone Him for blas- 
phemy. Not long after, in the same 
place. He calmly asserts, "I and my 
Father are one." 

On the night before His crucifixion 
He tells His disciples, " He that hath 
seen me hath seen the Father." So, 
also, when He is arraigned before 
the Supreme Court of the Jews on 
the charge of blasphemy, in that He 
had made Himself equal with God, 
He enters no denial; He admits the 
facts, and rests His defense upon the 
truth of His claim, which He now 
reiterates in the presence of His 
judges, "Hereafter shall ye seethe 



82 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST P 

Son of Man sitting on the right hand 
of power and coming in the clouds 
of Heaven." But His judges would 
not admit that His claim was true, 
and so He was crucified, and from 
their standpoint rightfully convicted 
of blasphemy. 

But even these direct and explicit 
assertions of divinity are not so 
startling as His quiet assumption of 
divine prerogatives. Thus in the 
Sermon on the Mount, He represents 
' Himself as the supreme arbiter of 
man's destiny — "Many will say unto 
me in that day. Lord, Lord, have w^e 
not prophesied in thy name ^ ^ and 
then I will profess unto them — I 
never knew you; depart from me ye 
that w^ork iniquity." 

In the nineteenth chapter of Mat- 
thew He speaks of Himself as sit- 
ting upon the throne of His glory, 
thus, in effect, claiming to be the 
King of Glory. And, in the highly 
dramatic account of the last judg- 
ment, in the same gospel, it is He, 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 83 

Jesus, the Son of Man, that shall 
come "in His glory, and all the holy 
angels with Him." It is He that 
shall sit upon the throne as univer- 
sal monarch, and His lips shall pro- 
nounce sentence upon the assembled 
nations. 

So moreover, not once or twice, but 
many times, consistently through- 
out His ministry. He presents Him- 
self as the source of life, the only 
dependence of the soul, the complete 
satisfaction for all human need, for 
eternity as well as for time: " Come 
unto me and I will give you rest." 
" I am the bread of life." " I am the 
living bread which came down from 
Heaven; if any man eat of this bread 
He shall live forever." "I am the 
Resurrection and the Life." "I am 
the Way, the Truth, and the Life." 

Now, all this and much more that 
might be quoted from the words of 
Jesus, make it perfectly plain that 
He Himself, at all events, claimed 
to be God Incarnate. And in view 



84 WHA T THINK YE OF CHRIST? 

of the fact that Jesus makes this 
claim, we are shut up to one of three 
alternatives in our estimate of Him. 
Either (1) He was an impostor, inten- 
tionally and wickedly deceiving the 
people; or (2) He was a self -deceived, 
visionary enthusiast, so weak minded 
and fanatical as to believe not only 
that he was a god, but that he was 
God; or else (3) He was indeed what 
He claimed to be, and has a right to^ 
all that we ascribe to Him when 
w^e adore and worship Him as our 
Supreme Lord and Everlasting King. 
Let us look at the first of these 
alternatives: Can it be that Jesus 
was an impostor? Is it conceivable 
that He purposely deceived His dis- 
ciples, and deliberately misled those 
who trusted in Him, and pretended 
to powers which He did not possess? 
Is it within the limits of possibility 
that the Jesus of the gospels was 
acting a part and living a lie? No! 
it is manifestly impossible. It is 
utterly beyond all honest belief. 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 85 

All His conduct was blameless, 
not only according to the standard 
of His time, but even according to 
the infinitely high standard of His 
own teaching. The most careful 
scrutiny fails to detect a flaw in His 
life and character, so that if His 
claim of divinity was a pretense, it 
was a lie proceeding from the purest, 
noblest heart that ever beat within 
a human breast. And it was a lie 
never repented of, and persisted in 
through persecution and death, by 
one whose hatred of sin, and whose 
love of truth and righteousness be- 
gan a moral revolution in the world. 

Should the bramble bear grapes, 
or the thistle produce olives, even 
then we could not believe that the 
holy principles and exalted morality 
of Christianity have proceeded from 
the teachings of a charlatan and 
trickster. It would be a miracle, 
more astounding than that of the 
Incarnation itself, if the purest sys- 
tem of morals that the mind of man 



S6 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 

can imagine, and the holiest thoughts, 
and the most tender, loving and nn- 
selfish emotions that have ever had 
a place in human hearts, should have 
originated in a gross falsehood, a 
wretched fraud. Indeed it would 
be more than a miracle, it would be 
the destruction of all law, the anni- 
hilation of all logic, for the very 
statement of the hypothesis contains 
a self-contradiction which the mind 
refuses to entertain. We need not 
dwell on the argument. The most 
reckless opponent of Christianity 
does not now dare to impugn the 
motives, or to question the sincerity 
of Jesus. Whatever else may be in 
doubt, we know that He was honest 
and true and pure-hearted above all 
the children of men. 

But if He was not a deceiver, is it 
not possible that He was deceived? 
May it not be, that, carried away by 
His religious enthusiasm, He at 
length came to believe that He was 
more than human? This is the 



WHAT THINK Y.I^: OF CHRIST f 87 

favorite theory of modern skeptics. 
They represent Jesus as a good man, 
one of the best and noblest of men, 
but, unfortunately, to some extent 
the victim of a delusion. At times 
his enthusiasm bordered on fanati- 
cism, and so he came to occupy a 
false position and to imagine himself 
possessed of superhuman powers and 
divine authority. 

But this theory is just as super- 
ficial and unscientific as that of His 
l)eing an impostor. It is full of con- 
tradictions and impossibilities, and 
disregards the most evident facts of 
His life and the most marked fea- 
ture of His character. 

In an age when fanaticism was 
epidemic, and although He was the 
object, by turns, of popular adula- 
tion and opposition, He remains, 
under all circumstances, calm and 
self-possessed. His whole bearing 
and manner indicating no trace of 
fanatical extravagance. 

When the multitude in their en- 



88 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST f 

thusiasm would have taken Him by 
force to make Him a King, He man- 
ifests no excitement, He is evidently 
under no delusion; but, quietly send- 
ing away His disciples, He dismisses 
the crowd and retires into a moun- 
tain to pray. 

When James and John, in their 
indignant zeal, would call down fire 
from heaven to destroy the Samar- 
itan villagers who would not receive 
Him, He gently rebukes them and 
goes to another village; and even 
when He breaks out in terrible in- 
vective against the Scribes and Phar- 
isees, His words are full of the dig- 
nity and power of one who stands 
upon the truth and justice of His 
cause and is assured of the author- 
ity with which He speaks. 

Indeed, from first to last, there 
is no faintest suggestion of an 
unbalanced mind or of a disordered 
imagination. On the contrary, all 
His teachings are sublime in the 
combined simplicity and profund- 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 8^) 

ity of the truths which they contain. 

Was that powerful intellect which 
laid the foundations of Christian 
theology and Christian life, and 
which now, after eighteen centuries, 
dominates the thought of the civil- 
ized world — was that mind, which 
originated the unparalleled dis- 
courses of the gospels, so bewil- 
dered and uncertain as to fall into 
such gross self-esteem, and such 
absurd vain-glory as His assump- 
tions would involve if they were 
unfounded? 

Did He, whose keen penetration 
discovered the most subtle forms of 
self-deception in others. Himself fall 
into a delusion more extravagant 
than any that He exposed? Did He, 
who rose superior to, and swept 
away all the superstitions of His 
age and country, cherish a still more 
absurd superstition in regard to 
Himself? 

When He claimed to have fed the 
multitudes wdth a few" loaves and 



90 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 

fishes, or Avhen He summoned forth 
the dead Lazarus from the tomb, it 
is simply impossible that He should 
have been laboring under a delusion. 
And when He told the disciples of 
John to tell their master — "The 
blind see, the lame walk, the lepers 
are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead 
are raised," it is absolutely certain 
that He knew what he was saying. 

Only insanity could be deluded 
into the belief that such things 
were, when they were not; and if 
Jesus is insane, then let us look to 
the madhouses for the regeneration 
of the world, and let us depend upon 
the fanatics and the lunatics for the 
discovery of truth. 

In fact, the skeptic cannot account 
for Jesus Christ. On any theory 
which sets out with His mere human- 
ity. He remains a strange, confusing, 
unaccountable anomaly. You can 
make nothing of Him; He is not an 
impostor. He is not a self- deceived 
enthusiast, and yet He claims the 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST f 91 

honor due to God alone and speaks 
with the authority of Heaven. 

But when we take Him at His 
word — when we admit His high 
claim — when we believe that in Him 
"the WoKD became flesh," then all 
is consistent and harmonious in the 
story of His life and work. Mystery, 
of course, remains, as indeed we 
know it must, but all contradiction 
disappears, and mind and heart find 
rest in "the truth as it is in Jesus." 

This, then, is the glorious, hope- 
inspiring fact of the Incarnation. 
"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, 
for He hath visited and redeemed 
His people." 

Heaven bends to earth, and Heav- 
en's King becomes our brother, that 
we, through faith in the Son of God, 
may realize that we also are sons of 
God, and thus be lifted to a new 
and noble, position; a position of 
dignity and peace even now, and 
bright with promised splendor in the 
ages to come. 



92 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 

It is true that the Eternal Word 
was ever the life and light of men. 
It is true that through all the centu- 
ries before the angels sang to the 
trembling shepherds, the Word was 
in the world, though the world knew 
Him not — giving to as many as re- 
ceived Him power to become the 
sons of God. To Him Patriarchs 
and Prophets gave testimony. In 
Him the righteous and faithful of 
all nations sought and found peace 
with God. 

But, when, in the fulness of time, 
the Word became flesh, and, in the 
person of Jesus, dwelt among us, then 
life and immortality were brought 
to light, and grace and truth were 
manifested to the eyes of men. 

Then it was made evident that 
man is destined to be complete only 
in God. And then began that new 
life of humanity, which is to go on 
expanding from generation to gene- 
ration, until all shall be gathered 
together in one, in Christ. 



V. 
The Three Witnesses. 



Prov. ii, 1-5. '^My souy if thou ivilt receive my 
words and, hide r)iy commandments with thee, so 
that thou incline thine ear unto ivisdom and apply 
thine heart to understanding; yea, if thou criest 
after knowledge, and, liftest up thy voice for under- 
standing; if thou seeJcest her as silver, and search- 
est for her as for hid treasures; then shall thou 
understand the fear of the Lord and find the 
knowledge of God.^' 

We have in these words of the 
wise King a very urgent exhortation 
to study and search out truth, and 
it is distinctly declared that the path 
of honest and diligent inquiry leads 
to the knowledge of God, which is 
the substance of true religion. Let 
a man cry after knowledge; let him 
incline his ear to wisdom and apply 
his heart to understanding; let him 
seek triith as silver, and search for 
her as for hid treasures — then^ 
surely, without possibility of dis- 
appointment or failure, he shall un- 



^6 THE THREE WITNESSES. 

derstand the fear of the Lord and 
iind the knowledge of God. 

It is a great error to suppose that 
Christianity shuns inquiry or shrinks 
from investigation. Whatever may 
have been the case at some former 
periods, or whatever may be the case 
now, in corrupt portions of the 
Christian church, it is a slander to 
assert that Christianity itself fears 
the light of reason, or endeavors to 
maintain its influence by withstand- 
ing the progress of science and the 
development of the human intellect. 
On the contrary, Christianity is the 
sworn friend of education. Chris- 
tianity inspires and urges men to 
cultivate to the fullest extent all the 
powers of intellect with which the 
Creator has endowed them. Our 
religion teaches and prompts us to 
search out the secrets of nature and 
of life. It arouses the curiosity, 
and gives men such hints of the 
power and capacity of the human 
mind that the effect of its influence 



THE THREE WITNESSES. 97 

is ever to encourage the effort to 
discover truth. 

The church and the school go 
hand in hand, and the knowledge 
of God naturally awakens a desire 
to know the works of God. And so 
we find Christian men endowing col- 
leges, and establishing schools, and 
our institutions of learning are 
largely filled with the children of 
those whose Christianity leads them 
to appreciate the importance of 
developing the mental powers. And 
as our religion influences men to the 
study of all other truth, so especially 
does it urge them to the study and 
investigation of the great truths 
upon which Christianity itself is 
based, and which it is its business 
to proclaim. 

If the Christian religion cannot 
stand inquiry; if it cannot answer 
when it is questioned; if it has no 
established facts to bring forward in 
support of its claims — then, by all 
means, let us give it up. 



98 THE THREE WITNESSES. 

It does not authoritatively demand 
a blind, irrational faith, but it seeks 
the assent of the reason as well as 
the trust of the heart. And so when 
men call Christianity a superstition, 
a priestcraft; when they represent it 
as the enemy of science, or as seek- 
ing to maintain its position by ini- 
peding the march of the intellect, 
they speak ignorantly and falsely. 

The scriptures, throughout, repeat 
in various forms the exhortation of 
the text. They appeal to nature, to 
history, to the human consciousness, 
to every department of research and 
knowledge for the confirmation of 
their claims; and the whole tendency 
of the teaching of Prophets and 
Apostles, and of the Lord Jesus 
Himself, is to set men to the careful 
examination of the grounds of their 
faith. So far then from depending 
upon darkness and ignorance for its 
support, the Christian religion ever 
seeks the brightest light; and so far 
from being the foe of science and of 



THE THREE WITNESSES. 99 

the free exercise of thought, it ever 
encourages the search for truth and 
courts the most thorouo^h investion- 
tion of its own transcendent chiims. 
And this attitude of Christianit}^ 
is, of itself, strong evidence that its 
claims are well founded; for if they 
are not, then it presents the absurd, 
the impossible spectacle of a false 
system, exciting a desire for truth 
which could only be gratified by the 
destruction of that system. If Chris- 
tianity be false, then the men who are 
most deeply interested in maintain- 
ing this false system are most eagerly 
pursuing the very course which will 
expose and overthrow their error. 
If Christianity be false, then we 
have the strange fact of a vast false> 
hood cherishing in its bosom the 
suicidal principle of an eager love of 
truth, and yet not only living on, but 
developing and growing in every 
direction, by the very force of that 
principle which would naturally 
destroy it. 



100 THE THREE WITNESSES. 

But while Christianity seeks inves- 
tigation, it demands, and justly de- 
mands, that that investigation shall 
be full and honest. All the facts 
must be taken into consideration, 
and the aim must be simply to arrive 
at the truth, whatever that truth 
may be. Sneers and ridicule and 
sarcastic wit are not arguments, and 
fierce assaults upon detached pas- 
sages of scripture, or upon solitary 
facts taken out of their connection 
are not the methods of impartial 
inquiry. And there is the trouble 
with infidelity. It attacks Christian- 
ity. It carries forward its so-called 
investigations with the avowed pur- 
pose of overthrowing ''the faith." 
It allows this purpose to sway its 
judgment of all facts, and so is 
utterly unfair and unscientific in its 
criticism. 

Let us now look at the facts of 
Christianity, which the inquirer must 
face — ^I mean the great, undeniable 
facts which stand out before everv 



THE THREE WITNESSES. 101 

intelligent man with such promi- 
nence that they cannot be ignored. 
These facts are, first: The Book — 
the Scriptures of the Old and New 
Testaments. Second: The Person — 
Jesus, the Christ. Third: The Insti- 
tution — the Christian Church in its 
historical development. Our claim 
is, that these facts can only be 
accounted for by the further fact of 
a personal God — revealed in the Bible, 
incarnate in Jesus Christ, and still 
joresent and efficient, by the Holy 
Spirit, in the Christian Church. 

And the inquiry is, can these facts 
be accounted for in any other way? 
Can any rational and adequate ex- 
planation of them be given, if a 
personal Grod be denied and the 
supernatural be excluded? 

1st. The Book — a book which is 
entirely unique in all the literature 
of the world. It is, indeed, a liter- 
ature in itself, rather than a single 
iDOok. Written by nearly fifty differ- 
ent authors, through a long period 



102 THE THREE WITNESSES. 

of fifteen hundred years, nnder cir- 
cumstances as widely different as a 
king's throne and a prisoner's dun- 
geon—with a marvelous variety of 
style, and each writer having his 
own special and immediate object in 
view — it is yet a unit in its grand 
purpose, and all its teachings con- 
verge upon one central point and 
illustrate one prevailing theme — the 
Salvation of Man from the power 
and punishment of sin, through the 
limitless love and the stupendous 
sacrifice of a personal Lord and 
Deliverer, who is at once the seed of 
the woman and the Son of God. 
This is the thrilling subject of the 
whole book, from Genesis to the 
Revelation. It is with this momen- 
tous topic that tho history, the 
poetry, the prophecy, the legislation 
of the Bible are concerned. And 
the most hostile criticie>m, the most 
thorough and exhaustive examina- 
tion by the keenest scholars in all 
the centuries has failed to establish 



THE THREE WITNESSES. 103 

contradiction or inconsistency in any 
material point in this astonishing- 
book. Now, how can this fact be 
explained? How is it that Moses, 
who lived fifteen hundred years 
before Christ, and wrote for a tribe 
of enfranchised slaves, wandering- 
through an inhospitable desert; and 
David, who lived five hundred years 
; after Moses and wrote for a civilized 
and well-organized nation; and Zech- 
ariah, who lived five hundred years 
after David and wrote for that nation 
in the time of its humiliation and 
captivity; and Paul, who lived five 
hundred years later still, and wrote 
for gentile as well as Jew, for all 
classes and conditions of men, and 
with a far-reaching foncard intention 
toward generations yet unborn — 
how is it, I say, that noic, more than 
three thousand years after the first 
of them was penned, and more than 
eighteen hundred vears since the 
last of them appeared — how is it 
ihat all these so various writings are 



104 THE THREE WITNESSES, 

bound up in one volume, forming a 
perfect and consistent whole, sa 
complete and symmetrical, so mani- 
festly one in design and teaching that 
the majority of people never think 
of them except as one book, and all 
speak of them as The Bible? And 
furthermore, how is it that now,, 
after all these centuries, and amid 
political and social and religious and 
literary circumstances, altogether 
new and undreamed of by its wri- 
ters, this Bible is still full of vigor 
and freshness and practical applica- 
tion to human need? 

And the wonder grows, as we con- 
sider the amazing influence which it 
has exercised and still continues to 
exercise over the minds and lives of 
men. Translated into more than 
two hundred languages, and scat- 
tered over the whole earth in mill- 
ions and millions of copies, it is 
eagerly read and pondered in the 
hovel and in the palace; studied with 
absorbing interest by the acutest. 



THE THREE WITNESSES. 105 

minds, the most profound and accu- 
rate scholars the world has known; 
and commented upon in many thou- 
sands of volumes of learned exposi- 
tion, it has also been the loved com- 
panion and unfailing friend of the 
ignorant and humble. 

The sorrowing have been comfort- 
ed; the tempted have been strength- 
ened; the errino; have been brought 
back to virtue; the young have been 
inspired to seek noble ends; strong 
men in the thick of life's battle have 
been armed to resist evil; the aged 
have had the lingering days of infirm- 
ity made bright and peaceful; the 
dying have been enabled to triumph 
over all the terror of the grave, by the 
words of this incomparable book. 
And that, not in exceptional instan- 
ces and under peculiar circum- 
stances, but through many centuries 
and in all lands where the Bible has 
found its way. And to-day, in the 
midst of the much boasted light and 
progress of this nineteenth century. 



106 THE THREE WITNESSES. 

this ancient book is more widely 
read, more carefully studied, and 
more practically and powerfully 
influential than ever before. 

Certainly all this constitutes a fact 
which has no parallel. It is a 
unique fact, which the inquirer must 
face, and for which he is bound to 
give some adequate explanation. 
We Christians say, in the language 
of the Bible itself, that "holy men 
of old spake as they were moved by 
the Holy Ghost." We hold that the 
supernatural influence of the Divine 
Spirit enlightened the minds and 
guided the thoughts and expressions 
of these w^riters, and so their unity 
and consistency are the unity and 
consistency of absolute and divinely 
revealed truth. And the astonish- 
ing and beneficent power of their 
words is due to the eflicacy of the 
Spirit that underlies them. In a 
word, it is God's Book, and hence its 
peculiar position in the literature of 
the world. 



THE THREE WITNESSES. 107 

Now, if you reject this theory, if 
you refuse to accept this explana- 
tion, how will you account for these 
facts, under what natural laws will 
you group them? There is no other 
book, or set of books, in any degree 
like the Bible. The sacred writings 
of other religions can no more be 
compared with this book than oil- 
lamps and tallow candles can be 
compared with the sun in the Heav- 
ens. These can be, and have been, 
accounted for in theii^ origin and 
development and influence, accord- 
ing to well-known laws of human 
nature, but although all along, from 
age to age, unbelievers have been 
tryino; to account thus for the facts 
connected with this book and its 
liistory, they have utterly failed. 
The theories of one infidel have 
l3een shown to be absurd by tha 
arguments of another. Indeed the 
only rational and adequate account 
of the origin and power of the Bible 
is that which the Christian ^ives 



108 THE THREE WITNESSES, 

when he calls it The Word of God. 

The second outstanding fact which 
confronts him who would inquire 
into the claims of Christianity, is 
the person of Jesus of Nazareth. 
The undisputed, the indisputable 
particulars of his life and character 
are, in brief, these: 

He lived in Galilee, an unknown, 
unnoticed Jewish peasant, until he 
was about thirty years of age. He 
then appeared in public as a teacher 
of religious truth, and very speedily 
attracted the attention and excited 
the interest of all classes of the 
people throughout the length and 
breadth of Palestine. For about 
three years he continued his work, 
going from place to place with a 
small retinue of plain men, fisher- 
men and tax-gatherers, and in the 
synagogues and in the streets, by 
the roadsides and on the seashore, 
on the mountains of Galilee and in 
the temple at Jerusalem, he quietly 
and simply gave utterance to the 



THE THREE WITNESSES. 109 

most profound truths which the 
mind of man is able to contemplate; 
solving questions over which philos- 
ophers have puzzled for ages with a 
few w^ords, so plain that a child can 
understand them, and in such a tone 
of calm assurance that it is evident 
that in his mind there was no doubt 
or hesitation. And these plain and 
forceful words fall upon the ear to- 
day as freshly as when they were 
first spoken. 

He claimed to be the Son of God 
and the Judge of the World. 

He claimed perfect holiness for 
himself, and the power to deliver 
others from sin. He claimed to 
work miracles, and by a word to 
heal the sick, to restore sight to the 
blind, to give hearing to the deaf — 
even to raise the dead to life. The 
honors which most men seek, he 
refused, even when they were 
pressed upon him, and led an hum- 
ble life of poverty and toil, while 
he rebuked the eager desires of his^ 



110 THE THREE WITNESSES. 

followers for the earthly success 
and prosperity of his mission. 

He declared that his kingdom was 
not of this world, but he also de- 
clared that it should ultimately 
include the world, and that it should 
continue for ever. The morality he 
taught was the highest and purest 
imaginable, and his own la.fe did not, 
in any particular, fall below his 
doctrine. At times he was very 
popular, and multitudes followed 
him admiringly, and would have 
been glad to put him at their head 
in an insurrection against the Roman 
power. 

But at last, having disappointed 
the carnal expectations of the peo- 
ple, and roused the bitter enmity of 
the ecclesiastical rulers by his fear- 
less denunciation of their greed and 
hypocrisy, he was betrayed by one 
of his own disciples, and put to 
death by crucifixion as a blasphemer 
^md a traitor. 

Before his death he had told his 



THE THREE WITNESSES, 111' 

disciples that he must soon be killed, 
but that he should rise again the 
third day. 

This declaration they seem not to 
have understood at the time, but af- 
terwards they believed that he did 
rise; they believed that they saw him 
and talked with him, and that finally 
they beheld him pass away through 
the clouds into Heaven. And this 
their belief was so strong and confi- 
dent and precious that, to maintain it, 
and to persuade others of its truth, 
they willingly gave up every worldly 
interest, and exposed themselves to 
ignominy and persecution and death. 

Such, in brief outline, are the 
facts of Christ's life, w^hich all must 
admit. Not one of them can be 
successfully denied, for they are as 
indubitably a part of authentic his- 
tory as the story of the French Eev- 
olution or the life of Greorge Wash- 
ington. The question then is, What 
will you do with these facts? What 
rational account will you give of 



112 THE THREE WITNESSES. 

them? The Christian, of course, 
asserts that the words of Christ 
were true, that His claims were well 
founded, that He is indeed the Son 
•of Grod and the Divine Savior of 
men, that He is God manifest in the 
flesh, that He is risen from the dead, 
and that the disciples did see and 
talk with Him after His resurrection, 
as they claimed. 

But if you say that this is not scien- 
tific, that science cannot admit the 
supernatural, then you must substi- 
tute some other more satisfactory, 
more scientific explanation of the 
facts . And with this problem infidel - 
ity has of late years been very busy. 
The most elaborate, ingenious and 
complete attempts to account for the 
person of Christ are those of Strauss 
and of Renan. But who believes now 
that either of them is a true theory? 
They are so full of contradictions 
and absurdities that the intelligent 
-enemies of Christianity can get but 
little comfort from them. 



THE THREE WITNESSES, 113 

And still the facts are unaccounted 
for. Still the question remains 
unanswered— " What think ye of 
Christ?" Do jou say, "he was a 
good and great man, an earnest re- 
former, and a teacher of truth — that 
is all"? But that does not, by any 
means, settle the matter, for now 
3^our answer must be questioned in 
the light of all the facts: You say 
he was a great and good man. Ah ! 
but he claimed to work miracles. 
You say he was merely a reformer 
and a teacher of truth. But he 
claimed to raise the dead, and that 
he himself should rise, and that he 
should sit upon the throne of the 
Universe and judge all nations. 
"Well," you answer, "he was vis- 
ionary and enthusiastic in these 
things and fell, of course, into some 
errors and extravagances." But is 
it conceivable that one so remark- 
able for self-possession and calm- 
2iess, for practical wisdom and 
shrewd common sense — is it con- 



114 THE THREE WITNESSES. 

ceivable that one whose wordB are 
the clear expression of the most 
profound and far-reaching truth 
should have been the subject of 
such vulgar delusions? 

If it be true that He who preached 
the Sermon on the Mount, and told 
the story of the Prodigal son, and 
uttered the Lord's Prayer and lived 
the life of gentle, loving purity re- 
corded in the gospels — if it be true 
that the Jesus of history imagined' 
that He raised dead people to life, 
or that He fed great multitudes with 
a few loaves and fishes, then we 
may as well throw away all that 
has ever been written on the science 
of the human mind; then, indeed, 
there is not, and cannot be any such 
science, for here are facts which 
give the lie to all experience and 
observation, and stand outside of 
any possible consistent theory. 

For, notice: it is not simply that 
this great, strong, clear intellect was 
deceiv^ed into the belief that some 



THE THREE WITNESSES. 115 

one else wronoiit miracles — that 
would be hard enough to credit — 
but the infidel theory is that this 
most powerful mind was constantly 
under the absurd delusion that he 
himself not only could, but actually 
did that which no human power can 
do — and that not once or twice, but 
hundreds of times, all throuaii his 
ministry. The fact is, that the 
denial of the divine and the super- 
natural in the life of Jesus of Naz- 
areth, involves a belief in wonders, 
more strange and inexplicable thon 
any of the miracles attributed to 
him. And the unbeliever exhibits 
amazing credulity in accepting the 
contradictions which are evident in 
any theory of a merely Junnan Jesus. 
The other obtrusive fact which 
must be met in any honest inquiry 
concerning the claims of Christianity 
is — the Christian Church. And the 
problem is to account for its peculiar 
origin, its unexampled career, and 
its present unparalleled position. 



116 THE THREE WITNESSES. 

A few obscure men, humiliated 
and disheartened by the shameful 
death of their leader, suddenly be- 
come filled with an all-absorbing 
enthusiasm for the cause which but 
a moment before they deemed lost. 
They boldly and emphatically de- 
clare that their Lord has risen from 
the dead. They stake their lives 
upon this, and with wonderful zeal 
and wisdom and courage they seek 
to persuade all men to accept the 
fact and to entrust to this crucified 
and risen Jesus all their interests 
for time and eternity — and though 
the civil and ecclesiastical rulers 
oppose and persecute them, though 
often the people are excited to fierce 
enmity, yet still their numbers rap- 
idly increase. Their influence ex- 
tends north, south, east and west; 
until, within three hundred years, 
their faith, so ridiculed and despised 
at the beginning, has become 
the state religion of the Roman 
Empire. 



THE THREE WITNESSES. 117 

And now, through eighteen hun- 
dred years this institution of the 
Christian Church has been growing 
and expanding far and wide through 
the earth. Threatened with des- 
truction by the fire and sword of its 
enemies — assailed again and again 
by the most subtle and ingenious 
arguments of infidelity — shaken to 
its very center by the corruption, 
the hypocrisy, the treason of false 
disciples, manifesting often, on its 
human side, a folly and blindness 
which would have been fatal to any 
other institution, it not only lives to- 
day, but lives with a fuller life, and 
exhibits a more healthy and benefi- 
cent activity than at any former 
period of its history. Wherever its 
banners are carried and its teachings 
accepted, the most happy results are 
quickly seen. Morality, science, art, 
freedom, the family, the school, the 
orphan asylum, commerce, manufac- 
tures, prosperity — these are the in- 
cidental and secondary accompani- 



118 THE THREE WITNESSES. 

rnents of its more specific work for 
the salvation of immortal souls. 

The civilization which is spreading 
among the nations, and which has in 
it the elements of indefinite expan- 
sion and adaptability to all races of 
men, is emphatically a Christian 
civilization. And the instrumental 
cause of all that is beino- done for 
the elevation of mankind, is this 
Christian church, built upon the 
prophets and apostles, Jesus Christ 
Himself being the chief corner stone. 

Now, what we claim is, that those 
wdio will not accept our explanation 
of these facts, that those who will 
not admit the supernatural in the his- 
tory of the church, shall account for 
the facts in some other way. And 
here again, after all the attempts 
that have been made, the problem 
remains unsolved by infidelity. Gib- 
bon tried to solve it historically, 
and Leckey tried to solve it philo- 
sophically, but their positions have 
been proved untenable, and their 



THE THREE WITNESSES, 119 

theories do not cover the facts in the 
case. And what Gibbon and Leckey 
have failed to do, men of less learn- 
ing and less ingenuity certainly will 
not accomplish. 

Facts are persistent and indomita- 
ble, and they can be neither sneered 
nor ignored out of existence. And 
these facts of Christianity — these 
facts which cannot be denied — the 
Bible, Jesus Christ, the Christian 
Church, stand forth as the most 
prominent, the most obtrusiye facts 
of human life and history. Yague 
talk about the power of superstition 
:and the general credulity of men, will 
not explain them, neither are they sci- 
entifically accounted for by ridicul- 
ing the story of Jonah and the Whale. 
These facts are too yast and too con- 
spicuous to be disposed of in any such 
way. In truth, the more diligently 
we study them, the more thoroughly 
w^e inyestigate them, the less satis- 
factory, the less adequate does any 
^natural explanation of them appear. 



120 THE THREE WITNESSES. 

The Bible is itself a greater miracle 
than any that it records; and Jesus 
Christ is a greater miracle than anj'^ 
that He claimed to work; and the 
Christian Church is a greater miracle 
than any that are said to have oc- 
curred in its history. 

And so we come back to the point 
from which we started, and unhesi- 
tatingly assert that what Christian- 
ity especially seeks is light — light! 

Our holy religion asks of the world 
a full, thorough, honest, searching, 
scientific investigation, and the 
brighter the light the more glori- 
ous will her heavenly truths appear. 

Let no man fear the future. No 
matter what storms may gather— no 
matter what foes may arise — no 
matter how many scoffing infidels 
may oppose themselves — the church 
of the Living God will move onward 
in majestic progress to complete and 
universal triumph. 

The old, old faith by which the 
apostles lived and the martyrs died 



TKE TRUEE witnesses. 121 

— the old faith of Augustine and 
Ansehn and a'Kempis — the old faith 
of our fathers and mothers — will 
yet live and grow older and older, 
and still its youth will ever be re- 
newed, and our children, and our 
children's children shall rejoice in 
the blessings it brings. As it has 
taught us the way of life, and brought 
to our souls the sweet peace of par- 
don; as it has united us in tender 
love with Jesus our Savior; as it has 
strengthened us in the hour of temp- 
tation and comforted us in all our 
griefs; as it illumines our souls with 
the glad, bright hope of Heaven — so 
will it continue to do for countless 
generations yet unborn. 

The truth as it is in Jesus is the 
Eternal Truth of God. 



VI. 
The Experimental Proof. 



VI. 

FsALM xxxiv, 8. '^0 taste and see that the Lord is- 
goody 

In the Christian religion every- 
thing turns on faith, Christ Him- 
self tells US — ''He that believeth 
shall be saved, and he that believeth 
not shall be condemned." Paul de- 
clared faith to be the one essential 
condition of salvation, as vrhen he 
says to the jailor of Philippi, "Be- 
lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ and 
thou shalt be saved." 

It is true that the Scriptures also 
insist upon the necessity of good 
works and righteousness of life, and 
teach, with utmost plainness, that 
without personal holiness no man 
can see the Lord. 

But this two -fold teaching does: 
not involve any contradiction or 



126 THE EXPERIMENTAL PROOF, 

inconsistency, because virtue and 
benevolence and all the qualities of 
holiness form a part of that salvation 
of which faith is the only condition. 
They are results of faith just as cer- 
tain as the pardon of sin and admis- 
sion to Heaven. 

When a man sincerely believes in 
Christ he becomes good, and his 
goodness is a part of his salvation, 
and a most necessary part. Indeed 
there is no salvation of which good- 
ness does not form a part. So that 
no matter how emphatically a man 
may assert that he believes in Jesus, 
if his life is persistently evil, we 
know that he is deceiving himself 
and that he has no true faith. If an 
evil-living man is counting on par- 
don and the joys of Heaven on the 
ground of his faith in Jesus, he is 
cherishing a false hope, because his 
want of personal righteousness shows 
that his faith is not genuine — that it 
is not effecting, and cannot effect, 
his salvation. 



THE EXPERIMENTAL PROOF. 127 

Still, salvation by faith, and by 
faith alone, is the great central doc- 
trine of Christianity; everything else 
turns on this, so that the one urgent 
exhortation which is ever on the 
lips of the preacher of the gospel is 
just this — Believe! Believe! Believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou 
shalt be saved — saved from sin first, 
and then from that misery which is 
the consequence of sin. We go into 
all the world and to every creature, 
we proclaim the good news of a free 
salvation, and he who believes is 
saved, and he who refuses to believe 
is condemned, "because he hath not 
believed in the name of the only 
begotten Son of Grod." 

And right here, at this central 
point, is the difficulty with many 
who are not Christians. They say, 
" Such a condition of salvation is not 
fair, because one's beliefs are not 
under the control of the will. One 
cannot, therefore, be held respon- 
sible for his beliefs. I have looked 



128 THE EXPERIMENTAL PROOF. 

into this matter and my mind is not 
convinced, and consequently it is out 
of the question for me to believe. 
It is all very beautiful, and it would 
be very pleasant to know that it is 
all true, but I honestly do not and 
cannot believe it. Why should I be 
punished for what I cannot help?" 

Now let us consider whether this 
position is sound or not — whether, 
indeed, it is a fact that the unbe- 
liever cannot believe: 

Beliefs are sometimes produced 
by arguments addressed to the un- 
derstanding, sometimes by the testi- 
mony of men upon whose intelli- 
gence and honesty we rely; but the 
scientific method of experiment is 
the method which in these days is 
especially relied upon to reach con? 
viction and certainty. 

Now to my mind the philosoph- 
ical argument for the truth of the 
Christian religion is simply conclu- 
sive. The process of reasoning by 
which it can be shown that the 



THE EXPERIMENTAL PROOF. 129 

church is a divine institution; that 
the Bible is the product of inspi- 
ration, and that Jesus Christ is 
the Son of God, appears to me 
to be sound, logical and unan- 
swerable. But to you it does not 
seem so. You have considered the 
arguments for and against Chris- 
tianity, and you are convinced 
that the church is a merely human 
society; that the Bible is not the 
Word of God in any special sense, 
and that Jesus was self-deceived, 
and from these arguments, you 
say that you can come to no other 
conclusion. 

So, again, the testimony of Chris- 
tians would be enough to satisfy my 
mind of the truth of our religion. 
Myriads of men and women, of high 
intelligence and und:)ubted honesty, 
in every age of the church, have 
asserted that God has revealed Him- 
self to their faith; that they have 
had experiences which make it im- 
possible for them to doubt. Their 



130 THE EXPERIMENTAL PROOF, 

testimony is like that of Meyer's 

St. Paul-- 

'^ Whoso has felt the Spirit of the Highest, 
^'Cannot confound, nor doubt Him, nor deny: 

''Yea, with one voice, O world, though thou deni- 
est, 
''Stand thou on that side, for on this am I. 

"Bather the Earth shall doubt when her retriev- 
ing 

"Pours in the rain and rushes from the sod, 
"Rather than he for wdiom the great conceiving 

"Stirs in his soul to quicken into God. 

"Ay, though thou then shouldst strike him from 
his glory, 

"Blind and tormented, maddened, and alone, 
"Even on the cross w^ould he maintain his story, 

"Yes, and in hell would w^hisper, I have known/' 

Their hearts, their desires, their pur- 
poses, their whole lives have been 
changed under the influence of the 
Holy Spirit, and it is an influence of 
which they have been and are per- 
fectly conscious. But while to me 
this evidence is perfectly convincing, 
in your mind, perhaps, it does not 
produce conviction. You believe 
that these people are mistaken, that 



THE EXPERIMENTAL PROOF. 131 

they are self-deceived, that the re- 
sults which they attribute to super- 
natural causes and divine influences 
are really due to causes perfectly 
natural, and so you cannot receive 
their testimony. 

And "Now," you say, "what 
more can I do? I cannot force my 
mind to accept that which my reason 
rejects." True, but neither can I go 
back of my Master's words, "he that 
believeth shall be saved, and he that 
believeth not shall be condemned," 
and yet I am perfectly sure that not 
one single individual in all the uni- 
verse will ever be condemned for 
what he cannot help. 

The fact is that you are mistaken 
when you say you cannot believe. 
You can believe, if you will take the 
necessary steps to reach belief. 

I do not mean that you are to go 
deeper into the argument for Chris- 
tianity, although I doubt whether 
you have quite exhausted that meth- 
od of inquiry. Nor do I mean that 



132 THE EXPERIMENTAL PROOF, 

you should reconsider the force and 
significance of the testimony of be- 
lievers, although the probability is 
that you have not given that testi- 
mony its due weight. But I do 
mean that you should adopt the plan 
suggested in the text, which, after 
all, is the only method by which any 
true saving faith can be acquired. 

Tey Christianity. Test it by per- 
sonal experiment. ''0 taste and see 
that the Lord is good." There is 
really no other way of getting at the 
bottom of it. Argument and the 
testimony of others are, indeed, of 
great value: they confirm the waver- 
ing; they strengthen the weak; they 
lead the hesitating to try the exper- 
iment. In the minds of infidel and 
skeptic they awaken doubts as to 
the validity of their doubts. But 
they can never produce a living faith. 
Even if you were fully convinced in 
your reason that all that the Bible 
contains is the very truth of God, 
still, unless you are able to say, "I 



THE EXPERIMENTAL PROOF. 133 

liave tasted and seen," you have no 
real faith. 

Just here, then, is where your 
responsibility in this matter of faith 
comes in. Is it honest for you to 
say that you cannot believe until 
you have used every possible means 
to acquire belief? And yet, as a 
matter of fact, the one only proper 
and sure method, the straight-for- 
ward, common-sense, scientific meth- 
od you have utterly neglected. 

Christianity is not merely a phi- 
losophy, a theory to be accepted or 
rejected by logical argument. It is 
a mode of life, a principle of con- 
duct, to be tested by experiment. 
And if you do really desire to 
believe, is it not foolish to refuse to 
make the experiments by which 
alone a true arid saving faith can be 
reached? 

And this leads us to notice that 
the exhortation to "taste and see" 
has an equal application to many 
who are not thorough unbelievers, 



134 THE EXPERIMENTAL PROOF, 

but who accept intellectually the 
essential doctrines of Christianity, 
and acknowledge the supernatural 
origin of the Bible and the divinity 
of Christ, yet hold back, hesitating, 
refusing to become Christians, be- 
cause there are details which they 
do not quite understand, and because 
there are some doctrines which they 
can hardly believe. 

When conscience urges them to 
turn to Christ for salvation, they set 
to work first to argue away their 
doubts, and to get their theory of 
religion all complete and consistent 
before they will accept the offered 
mercy, or declare themselves on the 
Lord's side. One says: ''I would 
like to be a Christian, but I do not 
understand how there can be sin in 
a universe created and governed by 
an infinitely holy, wise and powerful 
God." An(i he thinks he must solve 
that mystery before he can be a true 
Christian. Another cannot satisfy 
himself in regard to the doctrine of 



THE EXPERIMENTAL PROOF. 135 

predestination, and he will not trust 
Christ as his Savior until that matter 
is settled. A third stumbles at the 
doctrine of eternal punishment, and 
will not go a step further until that 
obstacle is removed. They stand 
and argue and debate and object, as 
if their Christianity depended upon 
the clearing up of all those dark and 
mj^sterious subjects. 

To all such the text speaks, "0 
taste and see that the Lord is good." 
Stop talking, stop arguing, and put 
God to the test. Try the experi- 
ment, and you will soon believe all 
that it is necessary for you to believe; 
and your belief will not be a dead 
theory, but a living and life-giving 
principle which, under the Spirit's 
leading, will, in the end, include all 
truth. While even now your exper- 
iment w411 bring peace to your soul 
and make your w^hole life nobler and 
more worthy. 

We now come to the important, 
practical question — How are these 



136 THE EXPERIMENTAL PROOF, 

experiments to be made? What 
tests can we properly apply to Chris- 
tianity in order to discover by per- 
sonal experience whether it be true? 
Of course we must be careful to test 
Christianity as it really is in the 
Scriptures, and not as it is in our 
notions. 

'When the Jews demanded that 
Christ should give them a sign from 
Heaven, that is, that He should pro- 
duce some wondrous spectacle in the 
sky, they were applying no proper 
test to His claims. He was not a 
mere wonder-worker. His miracles 
were all wrought to illustrate and 
enforce spiritual truths, and when 
they clamored for a mere wonder to 
impress their senses, they were not 
testing Jesus according to what He 
claimed to be, but according to their 
own unworthy and carnal notions of 
what the promised Messiah should 
be and do. So, also, when Professor 
Tyndall suggested that the utility of 
prayer should be tested by all the 



THE EXPERIMENTAL PROOF. 137 

churches praying for a certain thing, 
to see whether it would be granted, 
he simply displayed his ignorance of 
the Christian doctrine of prayer — of 
its nature and use, as taught in the 
Scriptures. His proposed tes t would 
have proved nothing, one way or the 
other, in regard to the real value of 
prayer. It would only have illus- 
trated the folly of Professor Tyn- 
dall's notion of prayer. A notion 
which is no less foolish and unscrip- 
tural because, unfortunately, many 
good Christians seem to hold and 
advocate it. 

And so in regard to Christianity 
as a whole, if you were to demand 
that the Almiojhtv should write a 
declaration of its truth on this wall 
in letters of fire, th8t would be no 
proper test at all, for Christianity 
has never pretended that anything 
of the kind would ever be done. 
And, if it should be done, it would 
prove nothing as to the real value 
and efficacy of our religion — it would 



138 THE EXPERIMENTAL PROOF. 

have no power to convince a single 
mind of any spiritual truth; or if 
you demand that worldly prosperity 
and success should be the results of 
becoming religious, and decide that 
religion is a delusion because these 
results do not, in many instances, 
follow the practice of piety; or if 
you insist that God should make 
you perfect and sinless before you 
will believe His word or put your 
trust in Him; these experiments 
would be utterly worthless, because 
utterly inapplicable. You would be 
merelj^ testing your own precon- 
ceived idea of what God ought to be, 
and of what Christianity ought to 
effect, and not at all the God and the 
Christianity of the Bible. 

Still another wrong and unwar- 
rantable test, which many will insist 
upon applying to Christianity, is 
this: they require that the Spirit of 
God should so work upon them as to 
produce some sudden and over- 
whelming excitement of the feelings, 



THE EXPERIMENTAL PROOF. 139 

and they demand that before they 
yield to Christ their faith and obedi- 
ence, they shall be made conscious 
of some mystical supernatural influ- 
ence, which shall bear them along as 
on a flood toward God and truth. 
And since this proof is not given 
them, they will not believe — they 
will not obey. But this is no proper 
test — for, while it is true that the 
Holy Spirit does in some instances 
manifest His presence and His power 
in such manner, as in the case of the 
Apostle Paul, yet far more frequently 
it is through the ordinary operations 
of the mind and in the common 
events of life, and by the clear 
teachings of the Bible, that He 
speaks to the human soul and leads 
it to submit to His heavenly (guid- 
ance. And surely we may not 
demand of Him a method of con- 
version which He has not promised 
to follow. 

But now let us look at some of 
the tests which may he legitimately 



140 THE EXPERIMENTAL PROOF. 

and effectually applied to Christian- 
ity. 

It is recorded that when Jesus was 
on the earth, He gave this invitation 
and made this promise — "Come 
unto me all ye that labor and are 
heavy laden and I will give you 
rest." And to this day Christianity 
makes much of this, and asserts 
distinctly and confidently, staking 
its truth upon the assertion, that 
any man who will go to Christ and 
ask His help will find rest and peace 
for his soul. Now, you have sins 
that burden you. Does not con- 
science often remind you of them? 
Do they not at times lie heavy on 
your soul? You cannot, I am sure, 
think peacefully and joyfully of the 
hour when you must stand before 
your Maker and give account of the 
deeds done in the body. The 
thought of judgment, and of the 
dark uncertainty that shrouds the 
future, oppresses you with a vague 
feeling of dread. Here, then, you 



THE EXPERIMENTAL PROOF. 141 

may test God. Now you can try 
Christianity, and find out for your- 
self whether it be true. Go to Jesus 
Christ with all your weary burden. 
Go, even if you are not sure that He 
can hear you or help you, and cry— 
"0 thou that takest away the sin of 
the world, take away my sin,'' and 
if you mean it — if you are willing to 
part with all the sweetness of sin as 
well as with its bitterness — then, if 
there is any truth in our religion, 
that prayer will be heard, and you 
will soon be able to exclaim, in the 
assurance of a triumphant faith, "I 
knoio that my Redeemer liveth." 

Or you have sorrows that are 
heavy to bear. They have no ele- 
ment of brightness or hope in them, 
but they darken all your life with 
their deep, unintelligible misery. 
Now you can apply the acid and see 
whether the shining metal be indeed 
pure gold. Take your heavy-laden 
soul to Jesus Christ, and plead His 
promise, and ask for light and com- 



142 THE EXPERIMENTAL PROOF, 

fort, and then, if Christ be true, yoti 
^ill find rest. And even in your 
sore affliction you will discover a 
wise and loving purpose. Through 
the mist of your tears you will recog- 
nize your Father's face, and the 
peace of God, which passeth all 
understanding, will keep your heart 
and mind. 

Again, Jesus declares that the 
Heavenly Father will give His Holy 
Spirit to those who ask Him. And 
He says, "Blessed are the pure in 
heart, for they shall see God." Now, 
do you really desire to believe? 
Would you indeed be convinced? 
Would you know the truth of this 
Savior? Then make the experiment. 
Ask for the Holy Spirit to enlighten 
and guide you. Purify your heart. 
Walk in the ways of holiness. Aim 
steadily at truth in speech and con- 
duct. Set about a life of careful 
obedience to the precepts of the 
JBible; and then, unless Christianity 
is a falsehood and a failure, you 



THE EXPERIMENTAL PROOF. 143: 

shall see God — you shall come to a 
clear, trusting, confiding knowledge 
of Him. The twilight of doubt, nay, 
the very night of unbelief, will be- 
come the bright noonday of assured 
faith. 

These and such as these are the- 
proper practical tests by which to 
try Christianity. In this way yoa 
may "taste and see that the Lord is 
good." And not until you have 
thoroughly and faithfully made these 
experiments and found them to fail, 
can you honestly claim that you 
cannot believe in Christ. If the 
arguments for Christianity do not 
convince you; if the testimony of 
Christians to the realitv of their 
experiences is insuflScient evidence 
for you; yet this method, this best 
and only sure method, still remains. 
Taste, and you will see that the 
Lord is good. 

Some of us have made this per- 
sonal trial of Jesus Christ and His 
promises, and now we believe, not 



144 THE EXPERIMENTAL PROOF. 

because it is reasonable, not because 
we have been told by others, but 
because we have experienced His 
love and His truth. Our experiment 
lias been successful and satisfactory. 
Now, will not you make the trial? 

Is it not the part of a wise man, 
is it not the part of a fair-minded 
man, to prove all things and to hold 
fast that which is good? 



VII. 
Sin. 



VII. 



1 John iii, 4. *' Sin is the transgression of the 



Sin is an ngly word and stands 
for an ugly thing. It is not a pleas- 
ant or attractive subject to contem- 
plate. To drag out into the light 
and hold up to view, to look at and 
meditate upon the sinfulness of the 
human heart, and all the horrid con- 
sequences of that sinfulness, is by 
no means an agreeable occupation.. 
And because it is not agreeable, 
many people object to its being done 
under any circumstances. 

Why not dismiss so gloomy a sub- 
ject? they say. Why give it any 
prominence whatever ? Certainly 
there is present actual misery and 
sorrow enough in the world, without 
affrighting us with this grim spectre 



148 SIN. 

of guilt and its ghostly train of at- 
tendant woes. The preacher should 
seek to make life brighter, not dark- 
er. Pleasant themes should be pre- 
sented in the pulpit. The church 
should be a place of joy and peace. 
Religion should be made attractive. 
The love of God should be dwelt 
upon. His fatherly goodness and 
tender pity should be set forth with 
emphasis, and only those subjects 
that are calculated to draw and win 
men should be preached about. 

Ah ! how glad would we be if the 
facts of the case would warrant such 
a course. But, alas, they will not, 
and the minister who adopts that 
pleasant theory as the plan of his 
ministry is recreant to his duty, dis- 
loyal to his Master, and unfaithful 
to his people. 

It is our business, as ambassadors 
of the Great King, to speak from 
the Word of God concerning the life 
of men; and since both the Word of 
God and human life are full of this 



SIN. 149 

subject; since it is the most conspic- 
uous fact in human experience, and 
the Bible refers to it on every page, 
certainly, if we leave out sin and its 
punishment, we cannot be true to 
our commission. 

And, besides, if we do shut our 
eyes to these facts; if we refuse 
to consider them; if we succeed 
in dismissing from our minds all 
the painful thoughts, the fears 
and misgivings to which they give 
rise; we do not in this way oblit- 
erate the facts. We do not get 
rid of sin. We do not escape its 
punishment. We are simply like 
the debtor, who has not the moral 
courage to examine his accounts, 
and v/ho, rather than think about 
the disagreeable subject of his debts, 
allows his affairs to run to still 
greater confusion, and to final and 
irretrievable ruin. Or we are like 
one afflicted with some secret dis- 
ease, who refuses to call in the 
physician, or to take any medicine 



150 SIN, 

because it makes him unhappy to be 
reminded that he is sick. 

To avoid the consideration of facts^ 
simply because they are painful or 
disquieting, is weak and cowardly, 
and it does no good. 

Moreover, we can only rise to an 
adequate conception of Grod's love in. 
the recognition of our own sinfulness. 
We can only experience the full joy 
of salvation, as we realize what it 
is from which we are being saved. 

The fair, radiant, joy-giving pic- 
ture of Jesus Christ as our Savior 
and friend, can only shine forth in 
its full beauty and lustre, from the 
dark background of that estate of 
sin and misery from which He re- 
deems us. 

Let us, therefore, honestly, man- 
fully, fearlessly, look at this terrible 
and universal fact, and endeavor, in 
the light of revelation and experi- 
ence, to understand what sin is, so 
that we may the better know how 
we can be saved from it. 



SIN, 151 

Many crude and incorrect notions 
prevail in regard to the nature of 
sin, and this error and confusion 
lead to very sad practical results. 

Thus, there are those who esteem 
as sin only such acts as are against 
the law of the land; to commit mur- 
der, to steal, to forge another man's 
name — these crimes, and such as 
these, cover all that the word sin 
means to them. 

Others advance a step beyond this, 
and include in their idea of sin all 
acts that are contrary to the law of 
public opinion, and the customs and 
morals of civilized life. They admit 
that drunkenness, impurity, pro- 
fanity, lying, indeed vices of all 
kinds are sinful. But, if they avoid 
immorality, then they cannot be 
charged with sin. 

Still others, having deeper insight 
and taking a wider view, find sin, 
not only in the outward act, but in 
the thoughts and feelings and desires 
of the heart, even when these are 



152 SIN, 

not expressed in action. They re- 
cognize the fact that envy and cov- 
etousness, and hatred, and lust, no 
matter how secretly they may be 
hidden from the eyes of men, are 
in themselves sinful and corrupt, and 
defile the man who indulges them. 
And so they make it their aim to be 
rid of all such evil thoughts and 
feelings and desires, and with that 
they are satisfied. They say: "If 
we do not harbor ill will to those 
who have injured us; if we are not 
envious of those who are better off*; 
if we keep our minds clean and inno- 
cent, surely we cannot be called sin- 
ners." 

In this way men set up their own 
theories, and try themselves accord- 
ing to a standard of their own cre- 
ation, and then complacently assume 
that they are without sin. And yet, 
while they thus justify themselves, 
they cannot altogether escape the 
conviction that after all they are not 
quite what thev ouoht to be — not 



SIN. KS 

quite what they were intended to be. 
Conscience is not entirely satisfied. 
The uneasy question whispers itself 
in their hearts — "What lack I yet?" 

When w^e turn to God's Word, 
when we leave all human notions 
and theories, and seek simply to 
discover what God has revealed 
concerning sin, we see how shallow 
and inadequate all these theories 
are. The Bible teaches us that not 
only are crimes and vices and evil 
thoughts sin, but the neglect of 
active practical goodness is equally 
sin. If we fail to do good to our 
fellow men; if we fail to glorify God 
by acknowledging Him and worship- 
ing Him; this failure is sin. "He 
that knoweth to do good and doeth 
it not, to Him it is sin." It is de- 
clared that the heathen are con- 
demned, because when they knew 
God they did not glorify Him as 
God. 

Nor does the Bible stop here. It 
goes still further; it penetrates still 



154 SIN. 

deeper, and discovers sin in the 
absence of certain thoughts from the 
mind, and in the absence of certain 
emotions from the heart. Accord- 
ing to the Word of God, if we fail 
to entertain and cultivate a positive, 
sincere, hearty love for God and for 
our fellow men, then, no matter how 
devout we may be in the forms of 
worship, and no matter how liberal 
our charitable gifts may be, we are 
still sinners and under the condem- 
nation of the law. 

Thus we see that, if the Bible be 
true, though a man be not guilty of 
any crime; though he have no vices; 
though he cherish no hard feelings, 
no evil thoughts; though he give all 
his goods to feed the poor; though, 
in the fervor of his religious devo- 
tion, he give his body to be burned 
as a supreme act of worship, he may 
still, in spite of all this, be guilty 
before God — a sinner, condemned 
and lost. 

Let us now try to see just why it 



SIN, 155 

is that this must be true, and so be 
able to ''justify the ways of God to 
men." 

Our text declares that " Sin is the 
transgression of the law," or as it is 
in the revised version, "Sin is law- 
lessness" — disregard of law. But 
what is the law, the transgression or 
disregard of which is sin? Our Lord 
Jesus Himself says — ''Thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God with all thy 
lieart, and with all thy soul, and 
mind and strength — this is the first 
and great commandment, and ^ the 
second is like unto it, namely: thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thy self. 
On these two commandments hang 
all the law and the prophets." Now 
this law, thus endorsed and empha- 
sized by Jesus Christ, is not a mere 
arbitrary decree, of an Almighty 
Xing. It is not simply a command. 
It is rather the statement of the rule 
or order of our true life. It is the 
revelation of the divine plan of our 
existence. It declares the method by 



156 SIN, 

which, according to the original con- 
stitution of our nature, we are to 
accomplish the purpose for which 
we were created. 

We find in all the works of God 
clear evidence that they were made 
to fulfill certain ends, and the 
scheme or plan of existence, loy 
which each thing accomplishes the 
end designed, is the law of its 
being, impressed upon it at its crea- 
tion. Thus the rivers flow in their 
channels, and the forests give their 
shade, and the orchards bring fortk 
fruit, and fire gives forth light and 
heat, and the atmosphere encom- 
passes the earth to soften the rays 
of the glowing sun, and all the hosts 
of Heaven move on in their ap- 
pointed orbits; and each fulfills its 
destiny and accomplishes the design 
of its creator. Each thing in the 
universe is under law, and obedient 
to law, and exists only according to 
the jylcm of existence ordained for it 
from the beginning'. And it is in 



SIN, 157 

consequence of this obedience to 
law that we have the sublime and 
beautiful harmony of nature, all 
things working together in perfect 
accord. For we know that all appa- 
rent conflicts and contradictions in 
the material universe; all the so- 
called strife of the elements; all the 
fickleness of the winds; all the 
eccentricities of meteors and comets, 
are very different, indeed, yet really 
harmonious notes in one grand 
chorus of praise to the Creator and 
Ruler of all. 

From that far-off beginning, when 
God created the heavens and the 
earth, all things have thus fol- 
lowed, unswervingly, the law of 
their being, and till the earth shall 
be consumed and the heavens rolled 
up as a scroll, all things will and 
must continue in absolute perfect 
submission to law. 

But man is not a thing. He is a 
poicer. Made in the image of God, 
endowed with intellio;ence and will. 



158 SIN. 

he is able to break the law of his 
l)eing; he is able to choose a plan of 
existence different from that which 
his Creator designed; he is able to 
disregard the original constitution 
of his nature. And it is this ability, 
this freedom to choose between 
obedience and disobedience, that 
places him in the scale of being 
above all created things. It is this 
that makes possible his immortal 
glory and dignity. It is this that 
drew from Heaven the Son of God 
to die for his salvation. 

As we have seen, the great primal, 
fundamental law of man's existence 
is love — a law which could only be 
arranged for beings capable of dis- 
regarding it. Men were made to be 
in conscious intelligent harmony 
with their fellowmen; not simply to 
abstain from injuring one another; 
not simply to bargain and traffic 
with one another; not simply to live 
together in outward intercourse; but 
to recognize and live in accordance 



SIN, 159 

with the fact that all their highest 
interests are common interests; to 
see in every other member of the 
human race a brother and to treat 
him as such; to feel and to manifest 
an active practical affection for all 
men; to seek, each one, not his own, 
but the things of others. So, too, 
men were made to have conscious 
fellowship with God their Creator; 
not simply to live on His bounty, 
and to depend upon His goodness; 
not simply to obey in outward act 
His decrees, and to speak His praise 
with the' lips. But they were made 
to enter into His plans; to sympa- 
thize with His thoughts; to rejoice 
in His holy purposes; to love what 
He loves; to hate what He hates; to 
delight in all His will; to give love 
for love. 

This is the design of man's cre- 
ation, and this is the plan according 
to which his chief end is to be 
attained. And what a glorious plan 
it is. Think of the countless mill- 



160 SIN. 

ions of all generations living from 
^ge to age in perfect love and har- 
mony with each other; filling the 
earth with the sweetness of univer- 
sal peace and brotherhood; all hu- 
man tongues musical with words of 
pure affection; all human activities 
fragrant with deeds of unselfish 
kindness. Think of this harmonious, 
united humanity, together with the 
principalities and powers, the angels 
and archangels, the spiritual intelli- 
gences that throng the heavenly 
places, all held in one by a common 
sentiment of supreme absorbing af- 
fection for the Eternal Author of 
their beinoj; the God and Father of 
all. 

Such is the ideal of human exist- 
ence. Such is the laio for man. 
And now is it not evident that any- 
thing in man's will, in his desires, in 
liis conduct, that tends to interrupt 
this harmony; anything that is not 
in strict accordance with this law is 
MuP' For sin is the transgression of 



SIN. 161 

the law, and the law for man is love, 
and so any thought, or word, or act, 
in disregard of love, is and must be 
sin. Not crime alone which vio- 
lently assails another's rights and 
happiness, and openly flouts the 
divine command; not vice and im- 
morality alone ; not evil thoughts and 
corrupt passions alone, but selfish- 
ness, mere passive indifference to 
God and our fellow men is lawless- 
ness, and therefore sin. 

Indeed, we may go still further 
and see that this neglect of the law 
must necessarily result in misery. 
Because we have this wonderful 
power of transgressing the law of 
our being, we do not, therefore, 
dethrone God, we do not escape the 
reign of law. There is another law 
that supplements the one we have 
b)roken and revenges it. "The soul 
that sinneth, it shall die." And 
under the operation of this law we 
bring ourselves, when we j. rebel 
against the law of love. And this 



162 SIN. 

also is no arbitrary decree. Tlii^ 
also is the statement of a natural 
and necessary sequence, resulting 
from the very constitution of the 
soul. It is the declaration of a 
principle, without which the uni- 
verse is unthinkable. By way of illus- 
tration, think of the solar system in 
the intricate yet beautiful harmony 
of its movements. Think of the 
planets, with their attendant satel- 
lites, their moons, their rings, each 
revolving on its own axis, and all, in 
their respective orbits, circling about 
the central sun. Obedient to the law 
of their being, they act and react 
upon one another through the ages, 
fulfilling their destiny, and suggest- 
ing to the poetic mind the music of 
the spheres. But now imagine one of 
these worlds, suddenly endowed 
with self-will and the power of 
choice; imagine it refusing to revolve 
any longer on its axis, refusing to 
remain in its orbit, refusing to be 
obedient to law — does not science 



SIN, 163 

teach us that it would iTimiediately 
come under another law, even a law 
of destruction? Do not we know 
that it would but plunge itself into 
ruin and desolation? 

Or, to come nearer home, we know 
in our own experience what disas- 
trous effects result from the disre- 
gard of law. Thus it is a law of our 
physical life that we should breathe 
pure air, and Ave know that if, in 
transgression of this law, we take 
into our lungs certain foul and poi- 
sonous gases, then our lungs will be 
destroyed, or their functions sus- 
pended. So, again, it is a law of 
our mental, our intellectiial life, that 
the mind grows strong and vigorous 
by the contemplation of truth, by 
occupying itself with pure and noble 
subjects of thought; and we know 
that if, instead of obeying this law, 
we keep before the mind falsehood 
and error, if we indulge impure and 
licentious thoughts, our intellectual 
faculties soon become enfeebled and 



164 SIN, 

corrupt, and often imbecility or mad- 
ness is the final result of such dis- 
regard of law. And we also know 
that no human power can change 
these laws or prevent these results. 

And now, in view of these facts, 
is it not certain that the transgres- 
sion of this highest law of man^s 
spiritual being must lead to results 
proportionately disastrous? Is it 
not certain that the disregard of this 
law of love, by which alone we can 
accomplish our true destiny, must 
produce confusion and misery in our 
souls, and end in desolation and 
death? This is the teaching of rea- 
son. This is the warning of con- 
science. This is the plain, explicit 
declaration of the Word of God. 

Such is our lost, hopeless condi- 
tion. We have disregarded the true 
plan of our life. We have set our- 
selves against the design of our cre- 
ation. We have broken the Law of 
Love, and so we have come under 
the law of wrath and destruction. 



SIN, 1G5 

Trom the operation of this law 
no human strength can deliver us. 
No man; no angel or archangel; no 
wisdom less than the infinite wisdom 
of God, could devise a means of 
escape from the awful effects of this 
law. But, blessed be God, a way of 
escape is provided. A way so sim- 
ple, so plain that the wayfaring man 
though a fool need not err therein — 
for "God so loved the world that he 
gave his only begotten Son, that 
w^hosoever believeth on him might 
not perish, but have everlasting 
life." "Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ and thou shalt be saved." 

How Christ can save His people 
from their sins; how He can make 
us the blessed, immortal children of 
God, and at the same time maintain 
the order of the universe and the 
law of sin and death; how He can 
restore in us the law of love and 
life, there is not time now to con- 
sider; nor indeed could we ever in 
this world fully solve the mystery. 



166 SIN. 

But, nnlesS He, the paTest, the^ 
noblest, the truest, the wisest being 
that ever trod the earth was a false, 
fanatical impostor; unless the myri- 
ads who have found righteousness 
and peace in Him have been grossly 
deceived. He can and will accom- 
plish this great salvation for all who 
believe on Him and trust themselves 
to Him. "I am the way, the truth 
and the life,'' He declares; "none 
Cometh unto the Father but by me," 
but " Whosoever cometh unto me I 
will in no wise cast out." 

Do you know of any other deliv- 
erer? Where is he? What is his 
name? Do you see any other door 
of hope opening before you? In. 
what direction does it lie? 



VIII. 
Eegeneration. 



VIII. 

John iii, 3. ** Verily ^ verily I say unto thee, except 
a man he horn again he cannot see the Kingdom of 
God.'' 

A WITTY French woman once said: 
'*My consent was not asked when I 
was born" — implying that the re- 
sponsibility of her life and her des- 
tiny did not rest upon herself, but 
upon her Maker. And in this she 
gave expression to what is, I believe, 
a very common thought among men. 
They silence the reproaches of con- 
science, they quiet their apprehen- 
sions of judgment, they repel the 
advances of religion, on the ground 
that, after all, they are what God 
made them. They have had no 
choice in regard to their inherited 
tendencies, and very little in regard 
to their circumstances. And, there- 
fore, as a man's character and con- 



170 REGENERATION. 

duct are the result of heredity and 
environment, i, e,, as our thoughts 
and feelings and actions are due to 
qualities with which we were born, 
and to circnmstances over which we 
have no control, we cannot be held 
responsible, and we need not worry 
ourselves about the future. And so 
repentance and faith and all this fuss 
about religion are idle and foolish. 
Let us live on naturally, according 
to our own bent and inclination, and 
the future will take care of itself. 

Somen talk, and turn their backs 
upon Christianity and the Church. 
But their position is utterly false 
and irrational, because the premises 
upon which they base their argu- 
ment are not true to the facts. 

No man is entirely the product 
of inheritance and circumstances. 
There is a third something which 
goes to make up the character of 
each individual, and that is his own 
personal will, or power of choice. 
Heredity and environment may ac- 



REGENERATION. 171 

count for, and be responsible for a 
great deal, but not for everything. 
Every man knows that his natural 
inherited disposition and tempera- 
ment have been more or less modi- 
fied by resistance or cultivation; and 
every man knows that again and 
ao^ain he has broken through or 
changed his circumstances, accord- 
ing to his own free individual choice; 
and so, in this margin of personal 
freedom, there is abundant room for 
responsibility. In spite of all argu- 
ments to the contrary, men know 
that they are responsible for many 
of their thoughts and feelings and 
actions. 

But let us suppose that this re- 
sponsibility is, after all, a very small 
Ttiatter; that man's power of wdll is 
-SO circumscribed and insignificant 
that he really is not able to do much 
with himself; that he really cannot 
make himself much better or much 
worse than his birth and his circum- 
;stances have made him; that in his 



172 BEGENERATION, 

daily life, he is certainly unable 
to reach, or even to approach the 
standard of truth and purity and 
unselfishness, which his own judg- 
ment approves as his proper ideal. 

This, indeed, is simply the teach- 
ing of the Bible. It is what is 
meant, by the statement in our 
*' Confession of Faith," that "Man, 
by his fall into a state of sin, hath 
wholly lost all ability of will to any 
spiritual good accompanying salva- 
tion"; i. e., by the sin of Adam, and 
the general corruption of his ances- 
tors, each individual man has, by the 
law of heredity, received such a bias 
of his whole nature toward evil, that 
he is utterly incapable of leading a 
good and holy life. But if this be 
so, why is not the French woman 
right? — "My consent was not asked 
when I was born." And having been 
thus, through no choice of my own, 
born to such a devilish inheritance, 
how can I help it, and how am I to 
blame if I go to the devil? 



REGENERATION. 173: 

It were aside from the object of 
this sermon to consider what the 
answer to that question would be, 
if there were no gospel. Whether 
your involuntary birth as a member 
of a lost and ruined race would, of 
itself, have involved your personal 
loss and ruin, is a question which, 
in the present connection, is of na 
importance. As a matter of fact, 
there is a gospel of salvation to the 
lost. And that gospel proclaims 
the possibility, for every man, of a 
second birth. So that, even though 
it be true that you have been born 
of the flesh, without your consent, 
to a corrupt, sinful nature which in- 
clines you irresistibly toward evil, 
yet there is now the opportunity 
offered you of being born again of 
the Spirit of God, and this second 
birth is a matter within your own 
choice. That is, you may, if you 
choose, take a fresh start; you may 
begin life anew, with your nature sa 
transformed and made over that 



174 REGENERATION. 

your inclinations and desires "will 
lienceforth be toward God and good- 
ness. 

In spite of the drawbacks and 
hindrances which result from your 
first birth, you will be able to ad- 
vance toward the ideal of perfect 
manhood. And having, by this sec- 
ond birth, inherited the divine nature, 
you may know that, according to 
the law of heredity, you will become 
like God; or, as Paul puts it, "con- 
formed to the image of His Son." 

This is the gospel. This is the 
good news — salvation for the lost; 
escape for those in bondage. This is 
the doctrine of Regeneration — a neiv 
.and lioly birth for those born in sin. 

Surely, then, if God has made this 
provision for us ; if He has indeed so 
loved the world as to give His only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believ- 
eth in Him might not perish, but 
liave everlasting life, it is evident, is 
it not, that, if we do perish, we can- 
not lay the blame upon heredity? 



REGENERATION. 175^ 

We cannot plead that we were born 
sinners and could not help it. Here 
is an opportunity to choose, and if 
we do not choose aright it is our 
own fault. Indeed, how can we 
hope to escape, if we neglect so 
great salvation? 

If you should be thrown, without 
your consent, into a deep and turb- 
ulent flood, with no ability to stem 
the current, and in your extremity a 
strong swimmer should appear and 
offer to bring you safely ashore, 
would you say "No; I was thrown 
in here. My consent was not asked, 
and I have no responsibility in the 
matter"? Surely, since rescue was 
at hand and you refused it, your 
death would be on your own head. 
Or, to use another illustration: here 
is a man born into the world a help- 
less, deformed cripple. We pity 
him, but we do not blame him. 
Poor fellow; his consent was not 
asked when he w^as born; but now, 
suppose he were given the chance of 



176 REGENERATION. 

TDeing made over — of being born 
again, with straight, strong limbs, 
and having this opportunity, should 
refuse it, would he not now be as 
much a subject for blame and con- 
tempt as for pity — would we not 
rightly feel that the responsibility of 
his misery was henceforth upon 
himself? And to us, poor moral and 
spiritual cripples, incapable of holi- 
ness, hampered and bound down by 
sinful proclivities, comes the Son of 
God, offering health and strength. 
He declares to all who are born in 
sin, the necessity, and therefore the 
possibility of a second birth by 
which a new and holy nature may 
be imparted to us. 

This is the force and application 
of the words of the text. Very 
solemnly and impressively does 
Jesus make this announcement to 
Mcodemus: "Verily, verily," He 
begins — an expression v/hich He us^s 
only on occasions of the greatest 
importance — "Verily, verily, I say 



REGENERATION. 177 

unto thee, except a man be born 
again, he cannot see the Kingdom 
of God." 

You notice that it is an absolute 
and universal condition. It applies 
to all classes and conditions of men. 
He does not say, "Except an im- 
moral man be born again;" or, "Ex- 
cept a vicious man be born again;" 
but He teaches clearly and unmis- 
takably that every man, whether he 
be moral or immoral, whether he be 
respectable or disreputable, whether 
he be a murderer or a philanthropist; 
yes, Nicodemus himself, the eminent 
Jewish ruler, as well as Zacheus the 
publican, or the thief on the cross — 
every man, by reason of the very 
fact that he is a man, needs to be 
born again. 

And it is an absolute necessity. 
There is no perhaps about it. Christ 
does not tell Nicodemus that it 
would be better for a man to be born 
again, or that he would probably 
stand a better chance of getting to 



178 REGENERA TION. 

Heaven. But He declares positively 
and without qualification, "Except 
a man be born again, he camiot see 
the Kingdom of God." And so the 
Church teaches this doctrine of Re- 
generation, or the new birth, as one 
of the essential, fundamental truths 
of the Christian religion. 

We do not say that a man cannot 
be saved unless he believes the doc- 
trine as we expound it — that would 
be narrowness and bigotry; but we 
do say that a man cannot be saved 
unless he experiences the fact; and 
in saying that, we only say what 
Jesus Christ has most solemnly and 
positively asserted. 

Having thus declared the necessity 
of being born again, we must now 
consider what, practically, this nec- 
essary experience is. And first, it is 
not simply a reformation of the outer 
life, an improvement in one's morals. 
That often takes place while the man 
himself remains exactly the same 
man he always was. Any one of a 



REGENERATION, 179 

hundred motives may lead a man to 
change his manners and his conduct ; 
but that is not being born again, any 
more than changing one's clothes is 
being born again. 

Neither is regeneration simply the 
acceptance, by intellectual belief, of 
the doctrines and truths of Chris- 
tianity. Many a man changes his 
views of theology, without experi- 
encing any change of heart. To 
become orthodox is not to be born 
again — to be thoroughly sound in all 
the philosophy of religion is not to 
enter the Kindom of God. Indeed, 
the devils believe — and tremble. A 
change of conduct, then, or a change 
of belief, or both together, will not 
meet the condition which our Savior 
names, but there must be a change 
of heart, of the affections, of the 
will. There must be such a radical, 
deep -reaching transformation of the 
whole inner life, that new purposes 
will be formed, new desires will 
yearn and sigh in the heart, new 



180 REGENERATION. 

hopes and ambitions, never felt be- 
fore, will begin to stir in the breast. 
There will be a new light cast upon 
everything. And the man thus born 
again w^ill see all things, time and 
eternity, and God and himself and 
his fellowmen and life and death as 
they never appeared to him in his 
natural state. Above all, he will be 
conscious of a personal relation with 
the Lord Jesus Christ, which is full 
of peace and joy; he leaning upon 
the Savior with faith and love, and 
Christ bestowing upon him grace 
and salvation. In a word, he is a 
new man; old things have passed 
away, behold all things have become 
new. Let me illustrate: Here, we 
will say, is a man who has been lead- 
ing a vicious, criminal life, indulging 
his passions, and even recklessly 
breaking the laws of the land. After 
a while he finds that his health is 
failing, and, besides, he is, in great 
danger of being arrested for his 
crimes and cast into prison, and so. 



REGENERATION. 181 

being a man of strong will power, 
he. determines to reform and settle 
down to a respectable life, and act- 
ually does reform, simply because 
lie is convinced that it pays better 
to be decent. Or, here is a man too 
fond of his cup. He is in the habit 
of getting drunk seven nights in the 
week, and when in liquor he beats 
his w4fe and ill-uses his children, 
but he is a big, burly fellow, with an 
arm and a fist like a sledge-hammer, 
and some of his friends persuade 
him to go into training for a prize- 
fight. And now what a change takes 
place in his life. No more getting 
drunk for him. For weeks and 
months he leads an abstemious, 
sober life, getting himself into con- 
dition, and the poor wife and puny 
children think thej" are in Heaven. 
And yet it is easy to see that neither 
of these men has really been changed 
at all in his nature. The change is 
all outside, on the surface; the heart 
remains just Vxdiat it was before. 



182 REGENERATION. 

But suppose that the Word of God 
should come to these men and their 
consciences should be aroused, and 
they should feel the awful guilt of 
their sin, and be led to cry to God 
for mercy, and the Spirit of God 
should awaken in them a hatred of 
sin and a desire for holiness, and 
then, earnestly seeking to be God- 
like, they should, by the grace of 
God, walk in right ways, trusting in 
Jesus Christ for pardon and right- 
eousness: then they would indeed be 
new men — men made over, born 
again of the Spirit. Or, once more, 
here is a selfish man, moral, a church- 
goer, a most respectable citizen, but 
selfish, close-fisted. Bye-and-bye 
he comes to see that if he can only 
gain a reputation for liberality it 
will greatly advance his own inter- 
ests, he will secure more honor and 
a better position and even make 
more money, and so he begins to 
open his purse and to give lavishly 
to this and the other good cause; 



nEGEXERA TTO Y. 183 

and men praise liim, and vronder at 
the great change that has come over 
him; but we, knowing icJuj he has 
become liberal, know that he is just 
the same man; that he has not 
changed at all. But suppose that 
in that selfish, worldly heart the 
Spirit of God had been at work, and 
the love of Christ in dying for him 
liad awakened his gratitude, and the 
needs and miseries of his fellowmen 
had begun to press upon him, and 
the Divine Spirit had brought him 
into such conscious fellowship with 
Christ, that his strongest desire was 
to be like Him and to follow in His 
footsteps, doing good to all men as 
lie had opportunity. If all this were 
the cause and reason of his unwont- 
ed liberality, then, indeed, would 
the man himself be changed, and we 
might vrell say that he was ''born 
again." Thus we see that when 
Jesus says "Except a man be born 
again, he cannot see the Kingdom of 
God," He means something very 



184 REGENERATION, 

real, very definite; He means that^ 
as an essential condition of enter- 
ing Heaven, a man must be rad- 
ically changed, made over, so that 
he is practically a new man, taking 
a fresh start in life, with a new, 
heaven-born nature. 

And now we come to the import- 
ant question: How is this great ex- 
perience to be reached? Already 
this question has been really an- 
swered in what we have said of the 
nature of regeneration, but I think 
it will be well for us, even at the 
risk of some repetition, to answer it 
again at this point. Hoio can a mau 
be born again? Not by a direct ex- 
ercise of will power. The will, in- 
deed, has much to do with it indi- 
rectly, as leading up to it and in 
the way of submission, but no man 
can will himself to have a new heart 
and a holy character, any more than 
he can will himself to have a new 
body and a healthy constitution. 
Neither can this change be pro- 



REGENERA TION. 185 

duced by reason and argument; for, 
though a man should convmce him- 
self, or be convinced that it were the 
wise and riojht thino' for him to have 
all these holy desires and godly affec- 
tions which mark the regenerate man, 
that would not effect the transfor- 
mation of his nature. And certainly 
joining the church does not secure 
the new birth. One might as well 
join the Free Masons or the state 
militia, as to unite with the church 
for the sake^of obtaining a new heart. 
No, the process is a far simpler one, 
far more direct. It is just to ask for 
it, as a free gift, from God. Regene- 
ration is the work of the Holy Spirit; 
it is the result of a supernatural, 
divine influence exerted upon the 
heart, and God alone can accomplish 
it. How it is done — in what way 
God acts upon the soul of man we 
know not. ' ' The wind bio weth where 
it listeth; we hear the sound thereof, 
but cannot tell whence it cometh or 
whither it o'oeth. So is everv one 



186 REGENERATION. 

that is born of the Spmt." 

It is, no doubt, a great mystery — 
this new birth — ^even as the natural 
birth is a great mystery. There is 
much about it that we cannot compre- 
hend, far less explain; but this we do 
know, that ''God sent not His Son 
into the world to condemn the world, 
but that the world through Him might 
be saved." And we know that when 
we believe upon Jesus Christ as our 
Redeemer and Mediator, and in Hrs 
name pray for light and peace, God 
always, w^ithout one single exception, 
answers that prayer, and His Spirit 
renews the heart; "for," says Christ 
Himself, "if ye, being evil, know 
how to give good gifts unto your 
children, how much more shall your 
heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit 
to them that ask him." Yes; God 
is our Father, and as a father He 
yearns over us and desires our per- 
fection and our happiness. And He 
is our Father still, even when, like 
the prodigal son, we have gone 



REGENERATION. 187 

away from Him into a far country, 
and are living without regard to His 
law, careless of His love. And so, 
because He is our Father, wheneyer 
we call upon Him, He will hear us. 
When we ask Him to bless and save 
us, He is more than willino; to gTant 
US His Holy Spirit and to lead us 
into all truth. And no man ever yet 
went humbly to God, and with ear- 
nest sincerity prayed as David did — 
"Create in me a clean heart, God, 
and renew a right spirit ^.within 
me" — no man, I say, ever honestly 
made that request of his heavenly 
rather and was refused. The prom- 
ise is full, clear, and unequivocal — 
"Ask, and ye shall [receive; seek, 
and ye shall find; knock, and it shall 
be opened unto you." 

Of course, if you do not feel the 
need of any change in your nature; 
if you are satisfied with your present 
condition; if you do not want to be 
born again, you will not ask; but if 
you believe the word of Christ, that 



188 REGENERATION, 

unless yon are born again yon cannot 
see the Kingdom of God, then go to 
Him, in the simple, direct way of a 
little child, and ask that this great 
work may be accomplished in yon, 
and without fail your prayer will be 
answered and you will be saved. 

And now, in closing, let me notice 
two objections which may be, and 
often are, made to this doctrine of 
regeneration. The first lies in the 
fact that there are many excellent, 
devout Christians, who have never 
had any conscious experience of 
this great change. How is it, then, 
that they are Christians? I have 
known not a few church members of 
unquestionable piety, who were 
greatly troubled by this, but the 
answer is perfectly simple, for often 
the new birth takes place so early in 
life that it cannot be consciously 
experienced, any more than the nat- 
ural birth is consciously experienced. 
When a child is born of Christian 
parents, and given to God in bap- 



REGENERATION. 18^ 

tism, in infancy, and is brought up 
in the nurture and admonition of the 
Lord, we have a right to believe that 
even from the very first its heart is 
changed and its earliest thoughts 
and feelings are under the divine 
influence. Or, even when this is not 
the case, it may be that the truth 
has so gradually found its way into 
the heart, and the Holy Spirit has so 
softly and silently done His blessed 
work, that the man has been indeed 
born again, but is unable to say 
when, or how. 

The other objection may be put in 
this way: "If this regeneration is 
such a radical change of the whole 
nature, how comes it that there is 
not much more difierence between 
Christians and worldly people than 
there is?" Well, in the first place, 
there is an immense, an infinite dif- 
ference between real Christians and 
those who are not Christians, but 
being largely a difference in the 
inner life, in the attitude of the soul 



190 REGENERATION. 

toward Grod, in the feelings and emo- 
tions of the heart, it cannot always 
be seen, it cannot be estimated by 
those who judge alone from the out- 
side. And besides, though the 
change is radical, its results are not 
completed in this life. When a man 
is born the second time, he is not 
born a full-grown Christian, any 
more than he was born a full-grown 
man at his first birth. The new birth 
is but the beginning of a new life, 
and that life develops gradually, as 
all life does. It is a growth — "first 
the blade, then the ear, after that 
the full corn in the ear." And 
though here we may see only the 
first tender shoots of righteousness 
springing out of the new nature, 
eternity will show the full harvest of 
a perfect character. 

But let ns not stop to argue the 
matter with our blessed Lord. Let 
us believe that He knew w^hat He 
was saying, when He declared to 
Nicodemus, "Except a man be born 



RE GENERA TION, 191 

again, he cannot see the Kingdom of 
God." If we have not yet ex- 
perienced this new birth, let us 
earnestly and diligently seek it. 
If we have, let ns try to show its 
fruits in a pure and godly life. 



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